tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74368128921243836032024-03-14T02:17:53.658-04:00Quiet LaughterQuiet Laughter. Musings and stories on blurred cultural boundaries.Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.comBlogger429125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-20821590137976160452021-10-08T17:32:00.005-04:002021-10-12T09:49:55.806-04:00What'd I miss? <p>Quite a bit, it seems. The second half of the Trump fiasco — <i>and</i> a pandemic. And that's just on the widest-picture scale. Life has changed so much, everywhere, for everyone, since Saturday the 23rd of June, 2018 (the date of my last post), that it feels herculean to try and catch up. Which is part of the reason I've let so much time pass without writing here. Every time I thought of doing so, the sheer amount of information I felt I'd need to cover just... tired me out before typing a single word. </p><p>(Disclaimer: I'm not sure I will be posting with any semblance of regularity, even now.)</p><p>A shame. I've missed writing here. I've missed many of the people I connected with in the blogosphere (is that still what it's called? I feel so out of it, haha.). Friendships forged through distance, without ever meeting, and yet so powerful, so <i>close</i>. Some of those people I have still on Facebook (I've also almost forgotten Twitter exists), but... it's not the same. The connection feels... well, different. So I'm looking forward to reconnecting with some of them, if they're still around. And if they still find something interesting in what Quiet Laughter will be.</p><p>Because things are going to change around here.</p><p>This is another — maybe a larger — part of the reason I've been 'away': those Trump diehards. Some of the people I interacted with on a regular basis back in 2018, and earlier, would've been not just delighted but honored to be at the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — maybe they even <i>were</i> there. And that's not ok. Not on this blog. This blog is my space — <i>mine </i>— and I get to decide which voices (if any) besides mine are heard here. If you're one of those (or if you feel the need to speak out in favor of Trump, of antivaxxers, of QAnon, of lizard people, of...) please do that in <i>your</i> own space. Not here. And I'll tell you right now: any and all of those comments <i>will</i> be deleted. This is <i>not</i> a public forum. Not your cup of tea? Please unfollow / block / do whatever you feel you need to. For both our sakes.</p><p><i>My</i> space.</p><p>(Aahhh, that felt good!)</p><p>About a year after I stopped writing here, I realized that I didn't actually miss blogging. And that kind of shocked me. I'd always felt I loved blogging; why didn't I miss it? Why did the thought of writing an update leave me so... well, indifferent? Back when I started blogging — 2011, if you can believe it — it held such joy for me. What happened to it? Where did it go?</p><p>I don't have the answers. Not all of them. But reclaiming this space as mine — where I don't compromise, where I can write if / when / what I want — feels like a good place to start if I'm going to find it again. Quiet Laughter began as a sort of journal... a writing journal, a life-in-Curaçao journal, an I-dreamt-this-last-night journal, a journal of milestones. That's what I want it to be again.</p><p>Coming soon (ish): an update on this new crazy hobby that's been eating up <i>all</i> my time since 2019 — and the business that's sprung up, kind of like a weed after a surprise rainshower, from it.</p>Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-12217326038847125402018-06-23T02:03:00.003-04:002018-06-23T02:03:36.764-04:00Murder at the Marina: A Guest Post & Blog Fiesta!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Ellen Jacobson, of <a href="https://thecynicalsailor.blogspot.com/">The Cynical Sailor & His Salty Sidekick</a> fame, has just released the first of a cozy mystery series that revolves, much like Ellen's own life, around sailing, water, and boatyards, and I was thrilled to be included in the amazing roster she put together for what she's—rightly—calling not a blog tour but a <b>blog fiesta!</b></span><div>
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Please join me in giving Ellen and her lovely new book the warmest of welcomes!</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Thanks for hosting me on
your site today to celebrate the release of my cozy mystery, <i><a href="https://ellenjacobsonauthor.com/books/mollie-mcghie-cozy-sailing-mysteries/murder-at-the-marina/" target="_blank">Murder at the Marina</a></i>. This is the first book in the lighthearted and humorous <i>Mollie
McGhie Sailing Mystery</i> series, featuring a reluctant sailor turned amateur
sleuth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">My own sailing adventures
and misadventures inspired me to write this series. My husband and I bought our
first sailboat in New Zealand in 2012. After a couple of years cruising in
those beautiful waters, we returned to the States and bought a bigger boat
which we moved onto in 2015. We've since cruised in Florida and the Bahamas,
labored over endless boat projects, and worked to keep our cruising kitty (savings)
topped up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I wanted to reflect my
experiences learning to sail, cruising and living aboard a boat, and being part
of the boating community in my cozy mysteries. You could say that there's a
little bit of me in my main character, Mollie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">I
thought I'd share one of the boating tidbits which I wrote about in <i>Murder
at the Marina</i>—</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">namely, marina rules.
As you would expect, if you're going to stay at a marina in the States, there
are certain things you can't do. Some seem pretty reasonable, like not dumping
the contents of your holding tank into the water. That would be gross! Or,
keeping an eye on children and not letting them run around the dock. It could
be dangerous if they fell in the water. But some might not make sense if you're
not a boater, such as being careful about electrical connections. Fresh water
and electricity don't mix. If voltage is “leaking” from a boat and someone
happens to be in the water, they could suffer from electric shock drowning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">When Mollie has to sign
papers to store their boat at their marina, she's surprised by all of the rules
they have to follow. She's not naturally a rule follower, so it will be
interesting to see if she breaks any of them over the course of the series and
what the consequences are. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">If
you'd like to learn more about Mollie and her sailing adventures, you can find
details about <i>Murder at the Marina</i> below.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Murder at the Marina—A Mollie McGhie Sailing Mystery #1</b></span></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nToTfpv3sFg/Wy3Q-MrVKoI/AAAAAAAAgS0/ylzOoi35RVITuJJ3dY9rOQweUr_9GAodACLcBGAs/s1600/Murder%2Bat%2Bthe%2BMarina%2B-%2BEbook%2BCover%2B%2528Ingram%2529%2B-%2BJPG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nToTfpv3sFg/Wy3Q-MrVKoI/AAAAAAAAgS0/ylzOoi35RVITuJJ3dY9rOQweUr_9GAodACLcBGAs/s640/Murder%2Bat%2Bthe%2BMarina%2B-%2BEbook%2BCover%2B%2528Ingram%2529%2B-%2BJPG.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Print ISBN 978-1-7321602-1-7<br />eBook ISBN 978-1-7321602-0-0<br />Mystery</td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial;">A dilapidated sailboat for your anniversary—not very
romantic. A dead body on board—even worse.</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Mollie McGhie is hoping for diamonds for her tenth
wedding anniversary. Instead, her husband presents her with a dilapidated
sailboat. Just one problem—she doesn’t know anything about boats, nor does she
want to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">When Mollie discovers someone murdered on board, she
hopes it will convince her husband that owning a boat is a bad idea.
Unfortunately, he’s more determined than ever to fix the boat up and set out to
sea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Mollie finds herself drawn into the tight-knit
community living at Palm Tree Marina in Coconut Cove, a small town on the
Florida coast. She uncovers a crime ring dealing in stolen marine equipment,
investigates an alien abduction, eats way too many chocolate bars, adopts a
cat, and learns far more about sailing than she ever wanted to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Can Mollie discover who the murderer is before her nosiness
gets her killed?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Available at:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CHXQ29Y" target="_blank">Amazon (US)</a> | </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07CHXQ29Y" target="_blank">Amazon (CA)</a> | </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CHXQ29Y" target="_blank">Amazon (UK)</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/murder-at-the-marina" target="_blank">Kobo</a> | </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murder-at-the-marina-ellen-jacobson/1128516692" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a> | </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1373848719" target="_blank">Apple iBooks</a> | </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Ellen_Jacobson_Murder_at_the_Marina" target="_blank">Google Play</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><i>Ellen Jacobson writes
mystery and scifi/fantasy stories. She is the author of the “Mollie McGhie
Sailing Mystery” series. She lives on a sailboat with her husband, exploring
the world from the water. When she isn't working on boat projects or seeking
out deserted islands, she blogs about their adventures at The Cynical Sailor. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">For more about Ellen and her books—the next Mollie McGhie is due out later this year!—you can sign up for <a href="http://eepurl.com/dpy5sv" target="_blank">Ellen's newsletter</a> and connect with her at any (or all) of these:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://ellenjacobsonauthor.com/" target="_blank">Author Website</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/EllenJacobsonAuthor/" target="_blank">Author Facebook Page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17395138.Ellen_Jacobson" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://thecynicalsailor.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Cynical Sailor Blog</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheCynicalSailor/" target="_blank">The Cynical Sailor Facebook Page</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://twitter.com/Ellen__Jacobson" target="_blank">Twitter</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Thank you so much, Ellen, for including Quiet Laughter in your amazing fiesta! I wish you all the success in the world for Mollie McGhie and her adventures, on and off the water, and we'll all be looking forward to the next book in the series. And thank you also for featuring me over at <a href="https://thecynicalsailor.blogspot.com/">The Cynical Sailor</a> today! (Ellen is a frequent visitor at one of the blogs who hosted the <a href="https://lifeindogs.blogspot.com/p/the-dog-book-blog-tour.html">Dog Book Blog Tour</a> last month, and after reading one of those posts she generously offered to have me over for her Saturday Spotlight series, in which she showcases select authors and book releases and cover reveals and other literary-minded activities. It's an honor to be included, and if you get a chance to hop over for a quick visit, we'd both love to see you there.)<br /><br />Thank you all for coming by!</span>
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Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-15416673171718740332018-05-27T00:55:00.000-04:002018-05-27T20:05:14.980-04:00The May #WATWB Edition: A Loud & Clear Yes for Women! #IrelandReferendum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My original WATWB post was drafted and ready to go early this month, for a change—and then I found out somewhere that Ireland was due to vote Friday on a referendum for legalizing abortion, and on a whim I decided to hold the post until the results came in. I wasn't very hopeful, given Ireland's long history of religious bias against women (this is, after all, the country where divorce was not just impossible but unconstitutional up until 1996!), but... what if it <i>did</i> happen? Wouldn't that be the mother (pardon the pun) of all extraordinarily good news?<br />
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Against all odds, history was made. In a landslide vote, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44256152" target="_blank">Ireland has repealed the Eight Amendment</a> of their constitution to make abortion legal. The foremost Catholic country of the West has—<i>finally!</i>—recognized that a woman's body is her own, not a breeding machine over which the state, or anyone else, has any jurisdiction.<br />
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"This vote is about a rejection of an Ireland that treated women as second-class citizens."</blockquote>
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"Women have found their voices. One of the fantastic things in this whole campaign has been it's been led by women, it's been led largely by young women, and they've been articulate, they've been honest, they've told about their own experiences, and that's made a huge difference."</blockquote>
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<a href="http://the-history-girls.blogspot.ca/2018/05/home-to-vote-by-carol-drinkwater.html" target="_blank">This excellent post</a> by Carol Drinkwater on <a href="http://the-history-girls.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">The History Girls</a> explains the issue beautifully. Thank you so much for sharing this link, Hilary!<br />
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A huge <i>Bravo!</i> to the people of Ireland for this landmark victory, and hats off to the bravery of everyone who campaigned for <i>Yes</i>. We're one country closer to a world where no woman ever need know the shame and stigma of being judged for making a choice which is uniquely hers to make.<br />
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This post is part of the <a href="http://www.belindawitzenhausen.com/" target="_blank">We Are The World blogfest</a>, the brainchild of Belinda Witzenhausen and aimed at spreading light in a world where darkness and negativity too often seem to have the upper hand. This month's co-hosts: <a href="https://shilpaagarg.com/" target="_blank">Shilpa Garg</a>, <a href="https://drkillpatient01.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Peter Nena</a>, <a href="https://inderpreetuppal.com/" target="_blank">Inderpreet Kaur</a>, <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/" target="_blank">Damyanti Biswas</a>, and <a href="https://courageouslivingjourney.com/" target="_blank">Andrea Michaels</a>.<br />
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Come join us, and help shine a spotlight on stories that showcase the power of empathy and respect.<br />
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<!-- start LinkyTools script --><script src="https://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=277138" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- end LinkyTools script -->Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-59121349887013566702018-04-12T11:36:00.002-04:002018-04-12T11:36:14.021-04:00On Body and Soul (Teströl és lélekröl): Reviews from the 2017 Curaçao Film Festival #ciffr<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-68M8PXjTiJE/WcD0lat09YI/AAAAAAAAJtc/fuht4B1wxjsppI4VGwV9oKxrKCMaLDYowCLcBGAs/s400/on%2Bbody%2Band%2Bsoul.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="270" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-68M8PXjTiJE/WcD0lat09YI/AAAAAAAAJtc/fuht4B1wxjsppI4VGwV9oKxrKCMaLDYowCLcBGAs/s400/on%2Bbody%2Band%2Bsoul.jpg" width="285" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5607714/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">On Body and Soul</a> (<span style="background-color: white; color: #373a3c; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Teströl és lélekröl), </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #373a3c; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0258221/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Ildikó Enyedi</a>, Hungary, 2017</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #373a3c; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Closing Film (Sun Apr 9, 2017, 22:00)</span></div>
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I was a little wary of this one; the description mentions "a slaughterhouse in Budapest is the setting of a strangely beautiful love story", and—well, watching animals die, let alone in a systematized, 'commercially viable' way is low on my list of things I find entertaining. But the festival people were pretty convincing, and we ended up getting tickets.<br />
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Yes, the slaughterhouse isn't toned down or disguised, and a good portion of it plays a key part in the development of the story. And since the film is in Hungarian, it wasn't like I could look away during those gory scenes; I tried to read the subtitles as fast as possible, to train my eyes to focus only on the subs and ignore the images (it's more difficult than you might think; the eye wants to follow movement, make sense of the colors and shapes), but there were some spots, maybe one or two, when I did look away completely, and subs be damned.<br />
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But it was worth it.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
It's a love story unlike any other. And, like any good love story does (or should), it shows us a side of ourselves, this human species, something new, unexpected, maybe even surprising, but which, as soon as we see it, we recognize as truth.<br />
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This is a film about boundaries, about individuality, about alternative experience of the world. Above all, it's about that genuinely 'adult' or 'mature' kind of love that seeks not the fantasy—the Prince Charming, the ride into the sunset, the happy ending—but the reality, the messy flesh-and-blood, body-and-soul uniqueness of being human. Most love stories hinge on an element of completion: when Boy meets Girl, he completes her—and she him. This is how they know it's Love. Love, then, is postulated as the Great Merger: effortlessly, naturally, two become one: they belong together, they fit each other like a glove. And it's all going to be all right now. Because Love Heals All.<br />
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The reality, as anyone who's been in an adult relationship knows, is... well, not quite so clean-cut. But isn't that what makes love so interesting? So devastatingly wonderful? And, also, what makes these make-believe portrayals of Perfect Love so dangerous?<br />
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This is the first 'love' story I come across where the issue of 'connection' doesn't preclude that of 'individuality', where Love really is about loving the otherness in this new person in your life. The connection between the two protagonists here is strong, as strong as any of the giant lovers of literature. But they are not Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, or Mr. & Mrs. Gray (ye gods, spare me). These two people are flawed and quirky and far, far from perfect—and oh so very human. And the story of how they come together—especially that last scene, just before the fade-out to the credits—is steeped in intoxicating realness, in insight... and in beauty.<br />
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The 2018 festival started yesterday, with an amazing Danish film called <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6742252/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">The Guilty</a></i> (review will be forthcoming, yes). The intention was to publish this post yesterday; the 2017 closing film on the day of the 2018 opening film. But, alas, didn't work out that way. I've been putting in overtime on the blog tour for the upcoming book release. A lot of work, but also a lot of fun. (More on that later.)<br />
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So this is it. The final post of the Reviews from the <a href="http://guilie-castillo-oriard.blogspot.com/search/label/%23ciffr2017" target="_blank">2017 Curaçao Film Festival</a>. I hope I get 2018 done sooner... Although it was good, in a way, to have to sit and remember these films, remember how I felt watching them, the thoughts and insights they sparked. But I do feel that I lost a lot. I <i>forgot </i>a lot. So this year I'm jotting down my impressions as soon as the movie is over. And I promise—yes, seriously—I will upload and post these new reviews, at the rate of about one per week, starting mid-May (or sooner).<br />
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I thought you might be curious about the Curaçao film festival, so I've provided some links here:<br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.curacaoiffr.com/" target="_blank">The CIFFR home page</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.curacaoiffr.com/Films?code=AE&year=2018" target="_blank">The 2018 film list (alphabetically)</a> — Note that on this link, at the top of the page, there are also links to the film lists of previous years.</li>
<li>If you're interested in the booklet, you can find a link to download a PDF of each year's at the top of the CIFFR page, under 'Festival'.</li>
</ul>
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Thank you so much for all your visits and comments. The best part of this review project has been the chance to exchange thoughts on the films with you.<br />
<br />Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-76804208947996349322018-04-09T07:30:00.000-04:002018-04-09T07:30:30.849-04:00Arábia: Reviews from the 2017 Curaçao Film Festival #ciffr<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://allmanaque.com/uploads/images/Cartaz_FilmeArabia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://allmanaque.com/uploads/images/Cartaz_FilmeArabia.jpg" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="400" height="640" width="408" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6400280/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Arábia</a> (Araby), <a href="https://iffr.com/en/persons/jo%C3%A3o-dumans" target="_blank">João Dumans</a> & <a href="https://iffr.com/en/persons/affonso-uchoa" target="_blank">Affonso Uchoa</a>, 2017 (Uruguay)</div>
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Sunday, April 9th, 2017, 18:15</div>
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A story within a story, both of them riveting, this film is a journey of loss and nostalgia, of social injustice—but also, most poignantly, of hope and joy and the beauty of a simple life. It's a hard film with a soft heart; a story of love and poverty, of hope and its clash with reality.<br />
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Brazil has been producing some outstanding material in film of late. In the past three years, we've caught some unbelievably good Brazilian productions at the festival; different voices, different styles, very, very different stories, but all superb. Young directors, young writers, young actors: it's like a new generation has found its voice, and the story they're telling is one that resonates with the entire world <br />
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This one is officially an Uruguayan production, but the themes and the setting, as well as, of course, the directors/writers, are quintessentially Brazil. I'm afraid, though, it probably won't be easy to find, especially outside of Latin America (it didn't make much impact in the big festivals, or maybe it didn't even play in them), but if you come across any Brazilian films, take a chance on them. It's well worth your while.<br />
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<br />Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-62846378300489493642018-04-03T07:30:00.000-04:002018-04-07T14:10:57.000-04:00Donkeyote: Reviews from the 2017 Curaçao Film Festival #ciffr<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BNWYxZDIxMDgtYmE1Yy00NTUwLTk4NmItMWIyMTFmYzI2YzYyL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTM4Mzc1MjU@._V1_UY268_CR3,0,182,268_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="182" height="400" src="https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BNWYxZDIxMDgtYmE1Yy00NTUwLTk4NmItMWIyMTFmYzI2YzYyL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTM4Mzc1MjU@._V1_UY268_CR3,0,182,268_AL_.jpg" width="271" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.scottishdocinstitute.com/films/donkeyote/" target="_blank">Donkeyote</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1872105/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Chico Pereira</a>, 2017</div>
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Sunday, April 9th, 2017, 14:15</div>
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To this day I'm still not sure whether it was a documentary or fiction, or a mix of both. It's catalogued as a documentary, but it <i>feels</i> like fiction. Something magical-realist here. A quirky film, certainly—but endearingly, maybe even wisely, so. And how could it not be? The wordplay in the title isn't just a tongue-in-cheek throwback to the Cervantes classic; this film is a subtle tribute to the Dreamer, a modern reminder, perhaps even a revival, of the <i>Quijote</i> and its magic: the mask of satire that slips and reveals nostalgia underneath, the whistle-in-the-dark laughter at the expense of old age, the self-deprecating dig at our own idealism—and the sudden spark of hope that maybe the impossible dream really isn't all that impossible.<br />
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(Why is <i>Quixote</i> spelled with an <i>X</i> in English? The correct pronunciation, in Spanish—and, being the epitome of Spanish Golden Age literature, I think it should be pronounced that way in any language—is <i>kee-HOH-teh</i>).<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In lieu of rehashed or revisionist personal histories, the film beautifully illustrates the way a life can be shaped and reconfigured by intrepidly putting one foot in front of the other in stubborn forward momentum, even through the most inhospitable of landscapes.</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">~ Pamela Cohn, <i>Filmmaker magazine</i>, March 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(read the full article & interview <a href="https://filmmakermagazine.com/101772-truefalse-chico-periera-on-his-modern-day-documentary-pastorale-donkeyote/#.WskFEtPwbUI" target="_blank">here</a>)</span></div>
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This man, the love he feels for his animals, especially his donkey Gorrión (but there's also a dog, and—well, you know me and dogs), the journey he embarks on, his stubborn commitment to a dream... it's s a beautiful thing to see.<br />
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And then there's the cinematography. Yes, the Spanish landscape makes an extraordinary setting even in the most amateur production, and this one, true to its documentary vibe, lacks any special effects or any construed dramatic device. Pereira, the director is known for his austere approach, his talent for telling brilliant stories by making use of "the moments when nothing is happening" (<a href="https://filmmakermagazine.com/101772-truefalse-chico-periera-on-his-modern-day-documentary-pastorale-donkeyote/#.WskFEtPwbUI" target="_blank"><i>Filmmaker</i> article</a>, 2017). Like his previous feature-film, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2448866/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Pablo's Winter</a></i>, this one also showcases that talent beautifully.<br />
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Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-88701835509973902272018-03-31T07:30:00.000-04:002018-03-31T07:30:00.406-04:00Neruda: Reviews from the 2017 Curaçao Film Festival #ciffr<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.palacefilms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/neruda.poster.ws_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.palacefilms.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/neruda.poster.ws_.jpg" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="533" height="640" width="450" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4698584/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Neruda</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1883257/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Pablo Larraín</a>, 2016</div>
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Sunday, April 9th, 2017, 11:45</div>
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Pablo Larraín was the only director to have two films at the festival: <i><a href="https://guilie-castillo-oriard.blogspot.com/2017/05/jackie-film-reviews-from-curacao-film.html" target="_blank">Jackie</a></i>, and this one. Both extraordinary, as different from each other as oil and water, both clear evidence—maybe even more so taken like this, together—of Larraín's exceptional talent for narrative and conceptualization.<br />
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If Larraín's name sounds familiar, it might be because his latest production, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5639354/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Una Mujer Fantástica</a> </i>(2017), won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film at this latest edition of the Academy Awards. Or perhaps you saw <i>No</i> back in 2012, which also starred Mexican actor and activist <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0305558/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm" target="_blank">Gael García Bernal</a>.<br />
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In <i>Neruda</i>, García Bernal plays the bad guy. Well, sort of; he <i>is</i> the main character (arguably—and they do argue this in the film), in the sense that the film depicts his journey from 'bad' guy (the police inspector chasing Neruda, who's become a fugitive in his native Chile after joining the Communist party) to... well, if I tell you that, I'd be spoiling the entire film for you.<br />
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Suffice it to say this: <i>Neruda</i> is as far from <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110877/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Il Postino</a></i> as one can get. (And, as far as 'poetry' films go, it's an entirely different universe from <i><a href="https://guilie-castillo-oriard.blogspot.com/2018/03/paterson-reviews-from-2017-curacao-film.html" target="_blank">Paterson</a></i>.) I don't mean just in the context of filmmaking or cinematography or narrative style—although, yes, there is that. But the Neruda we see in Larraín's production is the politician, the activist, the figurehead for social upheaval, as much as he is The Poet—and in the process of portraying this 'other' side of the man, Larraín's achievement is to give this Poet, a mythical, almost ethereal, creature, a dimension of humanity and reality that makes him—Neruda—all the more indelible as a historical figure. And—perhaps most importantly—translates his poetry into the language it was always meant to speak: the political.<br />
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Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-27750391237287153682018-03-29T07:30:00.000-04:002018-03-29T07:30:35.350-04:00Angélica: Reviews from the 2017 Curaçao Film Festival #ciffr<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMzQ0OTI5NzQtOWM5ZC00NTM2LThjNzEtMGQ0MTBkYWI1MWE5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODU4MjAxOQ@@._V1_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="480" height="640" src="https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMzQ0OTI5NzQtOWM5ZC00NTM2LThjNzEtMGQ0MTBkYWI1MWE5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODU4MjAxOQ@@._V1_.jpg" width="432" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5500166/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_3" target="_blank">Angélica</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2334909/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Marisol Gómez-Mouakad</a>, 2016</div>
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Saturday, April 8th, 2017, 21:45</div>
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Another glorious, glorious portrait on race and the roles women play—by pressure, by tradition, by choice. One of the underlying threads of <i>Angélica</i>, one which touched me deeply, is the mother-daughter relationship. As with <i><a href="https://guilie-castillo-oriard.blogspot.com/2017/10/julieta-film-reviews-from-curacao-film.html" target="_blank">Julieta</a></i>, this is a troubled relationship, further complicated by racial issues (mom is white, daughter is mixed)—but this racial difference, apparently only a surface one, serves to symbolize a deeper divide, one most appropriately blamed on generational gaps, and—coming full circle—on the ways perception of darker skin has evolved (and has yet to evolve).<br />
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I believe this is director & screenwriter Marisol Gómez-Mouakad's formal debut, and, yes, there are some bits of production that could be improved on. The budget clearly didn't cover extensive filming in NYC, so the bits set there may seem somewhat raw and unpolished. Some of the post-production could also do with some work; editing and continuity issues, but mostly minor. It's clear, however, that Ms. Gómez-Mouakad is a talent to be watched in coming years. There are many—<i>many</i>—long-time filmmakers who can't come within ten feet of her sensibility and sheer storytelling power.</div>
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Above all, this is a story about finding ourselves—our <i>self</i>, the true one, the one that doesn't hinge on approval from the ones we love, or the ones who profess to love us—and about what it takes to be true to it. It is a film about love, too; the romantic variety, and the familial one. It is a film about dreams, the ones we forget, and the ones that somehow find their way back to us.</div>
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Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-11159181446450113592018-03-27T07:30:00.000-04:002018-03-27T07:30:23.024-04:00American Honey: Reviews from the 2018 Curaçao Film Festival #CIFFR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1645110239.rsc.cdn77.org/image/f330x470/q50/mm/been/movies16662/posters/american-honey.20170303013601.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="330" height="640" src="https://1645110239.rsc.cdn77.org/image/f330x470/q50/mm/been/movies16662/posters/american-honey.20170303013601.jpg" width="448" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3721936/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">American Honey</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0036349/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Andrea Arnold</a>, 2016</div>
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Saturday, April 8th, 2017, 15:45</div>
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This one surprised me. As much as my interest was piqued by the trailer and the summary in the festival booklet, I didn't expect it to be quite so powerful. I think I imagined something of a period piece, a bit of <i><a href="https://youtu.be/BSXBvor47Zs" target="_blank">The Breakfast Club</a></i> meets a millennial's version of <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/jack-kerouac-9363719" target="_blank">Kerouac</a>'s<i> <a href="https://www.shmoop.com/on-the-road/" target="_blank">On the Road</a>. </i>And... well, yes, it is that. But it's so much more.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Before we get into the <i>more</i>, though, let me just say the 'period piece' bits have huge, huge value. For me, a solid Gen-X member, this film touched on some of the crucial aspects—aspects I had nowhere to even begin to understand—about the generation who graduated high school within the last five years. The sense of entitlement, for instance. Which extends into an appalling lack of respect for any form of authority. Yes, this is nothing new (Kerouac & Co., and every budding generation since), but these 'new' kids seem to be taking it to a whole new level, at least to this jaded 'old woman'. So a lot of the surprise aspect of this film was the insight into these young minds, and the empathy I felt growing as I accepted the invite to walk in their shoes.<br />
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And then there's the <i>more</i>. This film could have easily fallen into the <i>Breakfast Club</i> trap—probably would have, if made by a U.S. director, or a male director. Andrea Arnold (UK), however, turned this into not just a statement about the new generation but about the U.S.—and wealth inequality, and the role of women in society, and double standards (not just moral but economic), and capitalism, and how all of this contributes to the erosion of self-esteem.<br />
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Wow, huh?<br />
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AND THE MUSIC!!!!! The soundtrack of this film is brilliant. Granted, except for a couple of exceptions (<i>Fade Into You</i>, by Mazzy Star, is one of my all-time favorite songs), I knew none of the songs/performers, and, honestly, you probably won't find me listening to many of them by choice (like Kevin Gates, or something—someone?—called E-40, for instance... I'm sure they have their value, but I prefer my poetry delivered by means of less monotony... but I dare you to listen to The Raveonettes' <i>Recharge & Reload</i>, or Steve Earle's <i>Copperhead Road </i>[linked below], and not get road-trip fever). In the context of the film, however, the lineup works beautifully. The cinematography—camera direction, post-production, etc.—is a work of art that would hold its own anywhere-anyhow, but add the soundtrack and... BOOM.<br />
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Magic.<br />
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Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-38335806136615624412018-03-24T07:30:00.000-04:002018-03-24T11:34:33.141-04:00I Am Not Your Negro: Reviews from the 2018 Curaçao Film Festival #CIFFR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.kanopy.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/vp_thumbnail_medium/video-assets/1542400_landscape.jpg?1506436759" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="480" height="360" src="https://www.kanopy.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/vp_thumbnail_medium/video-assets/1542400_landscape.jpg?1506436759" width="640" /></a></div>
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Everything you've heard about this film is wrong. Okay, not <i>wrong</i>, just not... enough. There are no words to describe the power here, the tragedy, the desperate reaching for hope in the face of all the futility. This is, quite simply, the greatest documentary you will ever see. It will touch you—change you—in ways you didn't even think possible.<br />
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Woven from <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/james-baldwin-9196635" target="_blank">James Baldwin</a>'s unfinished novel, <a href="https://electricliterature.com/the-book-james-baldwin-couldnt-bring-himself-to-write-a51c3ac57625" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Remember This House</a>, given voice in the sober tones of Samuel L. Jackson, and given flesh and blood by director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0669704/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm" target="_blank">Raoul Peck</a>'s extraordinary talent, this is not just an eloquent portrait of Baldwin or of his own story, but of the story of race in the United States—right up to the present day, and beyond.<br />
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<i>The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.</i></blockquote>
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Coming on the wake of the <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/" target="_blank">#BlackLivesMatter</a> movement, all the focus on racial injustice for decades and centuries—and happening today, still—this couldn't be a more timely film. </div>
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Although Curaçao is far, far from the racial inequality so prevalent in the U.S., there is still quite a bit of it; in different shapes, in different tones, but still there. (Here.) One of the things that angers me the most is hearing white (or white-ish) people saying, "This whole slavery thing, man—just get over it!" For years I've struggled with a response for that—a response not just appropriate but effective—and I never managed to come up with anything satisfying. Now, finally, I can give them a rather condescending smile and say, "Have you seen <i>I Am Not Your Negro</i>?"</div>
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<i>I am not a nigger. I am a man. But if you think I am, it means you need it. And you've got to find out why.</i></blockquote>
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Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-27449579845247500942018-03-22T07:30:00.000-04:002018-03-22T07:30:15.390-04:00Elle (Paul Verhoeven): Reviews from the Curaçao Film Festival 2017 #CIFFR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://literalmagazine.com/assets/elle1-620x350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://literalmagazine.com/assets/elle1-620x350.jpg" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="620" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3716530/?ref_=nv_sr_2" target="_blank">Elle</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000682/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Paul Verhoeven</a>, 2016</div>
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Friday, April 7th, 2017, 21:15</div>
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Oh, how I hated this one. I should have known; Mr. Verhoeven and I rarely see eye to misogynous, chauvinistic eye. This film is, quite bluntly, about a woman who gets raped and enjoys it. Yes: <i>enjoys</i> it. The rape, in fact, turns her on so much that she deliberately goes after the rapist—not to exact vengeance, mind you (or castrate him, or cut his throat in the middle of the night), but <i>to get raped again</i>. And <i>again</i>.<br />
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And <strike>the idiot</strike> the director has the balls to call it a film about <i>female empowerment</i>. I suppose that, in Mr. Verhoeven's world, the only power women need to aspire to is that of loving their abusers.<br />
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The female lead, Isabelle Huppert, won Best Actress at the Golden Globes last year. And well deserved. She managed to translate into reality the twisted, masturbatory fantasies inside the cesspool that must be Verhoeven's head.<br />
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Unless you're looking to be profoundly disgusted—as if the world weren't offering enough of that already—do yourself a favor and skip this one.<br />
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Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-17489197147408882122018-03-20T07:30:00.000-04:002018-03-20T07:30:32.585-04:00Paterson: Reviews from the 2017 Curaçao Film Festival #CIFFR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5247022/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Paterson</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000464/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Jim Jarmusch</a>, 2016</div>
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Friday, April 7th, 2017, 16:30</div>
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This was one of the films presented under the 'Poetry in Motion' theme (along with <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4698584/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Neruda</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110877/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Il Postino</a></i> [presented together, which made a lovely pair], and a documentary, <i><a href="https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrid_Roemer" target="_blank">Astrid H. Roemer</a>—<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7712820/?ref_=nv_sr_2" target="_blank">The World Has Lost Face</a></i> [which we missed]). Adam Driver, known to more mainstream fans as patricidal Kylo Ren of the latest Star Wars trilogy, gives an outstanding performance here (and so regained the respect of the not-so-mainstream fans) as a bus driver who possesses, rather unexpectedly, the heart and mind of a poet. The beauty here is in how—much like <i>Paterson</i> author <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-carlos-williams" target="_blank">William Carlos William</a> himself—this driver/poet finds not just inspiration but reason for awe and wonder in the everyday happenings of his life: in tiny, unplanned variations in his routine, in the passengers he drives and the conversations he overhears, in his quirky wife's black-and-white obsession, in his rather reluctant walks with the most personable bulldog ever. In the mundane, in short. And because we watch him do this, remark and marvel and try to capture these mundane things, we are infected by it. One walks out of this film with eyes and ears and all senses re-attuned to find beauty in the world.<br />
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Of course this resonated with me doubly... <i><a href="https://truthserumpress.net/catalogue/fiction/the-miracle-of-small-things/" target="_blank">The Miracle of Small Things</a></i> is, after all, a similar (if different in style, and much less competent) attempt to reveal and highlight the beauty in the details. So perhaps I'm a little biased. But it did win 7 out of 34 nominations.<br />
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The film surprised me in one way: I didn't expect the humor. Poetry is notoriously perceived as sober, even solemn—unless one is introduced early to Shel Silverstein. I expected... well, not laughs. But laughs there are, and plenty of them. It's a meditation, certainly; one packaged not in a jagged pill but rather a smooth, even refreshing, drink.<br />
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It's a film about joy, and joy permeats every aspect of it. Poet fan or not, one leaves the theater feeling uplifted in tangible ways.<br />
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<br />Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-69930265028881809962018-03-17T07:30:00.000-04:002018-03-17T15:56:25.662-04:00El Vigilante (The Night Guard): Reviews from the 2017 Curaçao Film Festival #CIFFR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDU2ZjQ4MDEtNmYwMC00ZmJkLWI1OTYtM2YwMzM2YmZmNDU5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjk1Njg5NTA@._V1_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="495" height="640" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDU2ZjQ4MDEtNmYwMC00ZmJkLWI1OTYtM2YwMzM2YmZmNDU5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjk1Njg5NTA@._V1_.jpg" width="432" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4177336/?ref_=nv_sr_4" target="_blank">El Vigilante</a>, <a href="https://pro.festivalscope.com/director/ros-diego" target="_blank">Diego Ros</a>, 2016</div>
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Friday, April 7th, 2017, 13:30</div>
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This was one of the three Mexican films in the festival. I loved it, but several other people I spoke to (including Cor, my partner) found it a bit confusing. I hadn't realized it until they mentioned it: this film is uniquely Mexican in the sense that it portrays our idiosyncracy beautifully—our weird sense of loyalty, our mistrust of authority, our ties to family, our deference to employers—to the point where the plot hinges on it. So, if you're not Mexican, you'll probably walk away scratching your head a bit. <i>But why didn't he just tell the truth from the beginning? Would've solved everything.</i><br />
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That said, as a thriller it has some very powerful moments. The cinematography is masterful, Buñuel-esque, using the construction site, the setting of the story, to full advantage. The acting, even from minor or incidental characters, is natural and fully believable. The film, director Diego Ros's debut, won Best Film in the Los Angeles Film Festival last year, as well as Best Film and Best Actor in the Morelia festival in 2016, so I'm evidently not alone in praising it.<br />
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If you like thrillers, especially of the psychological kind, you may want to give this one a try.<br />
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(Sorry about the trailer; couldn't find one with English subtitles. But you can perhaps gain a bit of insight of what I meant about the cinematography.)<br />
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Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-2166300181411890702018-03-15T07:30:00.001-04:002018-03-15T07:30:28.877-04:00Pop Aye: Reviews from the Curaçao Film Festival 2017 #CIFFR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://de.web.img2.acsta.net/pictures/17/06/20/17/27/498004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://de.web.img2.acsta.net/pictures/17/06/20/17/27/498004.jpg" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="542" height="640" width="432" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3740066/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Pop Aye</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3562611/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Kristen Tan</a>, 2017</div>
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Thursday, April 6th, 2017, 21:30</div>
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Beautiful, beautiful movie. A naiveté that stole my heart and made me cry and cry in spite of the (sort of) positive ending. Or maybe it was the elephant.<br />
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No, no it wasn't.<br />
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Well, not <i>just</i> the elephant. Yes, I loved that pachyderm, and I loved his story, but the magic of this film resides in the narrative style. There's plenty of humor—fine, subtle, often guileless, humor—guaranteed to make you chuckle (and, if you're feeling particularly susceptible, even laugh out loud). But this is a social statement, a critique on the materialistic lifestyles we've somehow managed to convince ourselves we need. And because it is told in such a guileless way, it underlines even more harshly the redundancy of the goals we live and die by.<br />
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This is a feel-good movie. Remember to keep the tissues handy at the end, though.<br />
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Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-10497891494571512792018-03-13T11:57:00.001-04:002018-03-13T11:57:12.396-04:00Casamance: Reviews from the Curaçao Film Festival 2017 #CIFFR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6297254/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Casamance</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5558759/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Paloma Zapata</a>, 2016</div>
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Thursday, April 6th, 2017, 19:00</div>
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Some might think it a tad amateurish (I'm not one of them), but even those can't help being swept away by the magic of music and candor that is this film. Documentaries are difficult to make; unpredictable plots, characters that insist on doing their own thing instead of sticking to the script—oh, wait, no script. Documentaries are about truth: real people, real events, heart and soul given flesh. And the music! An exploration into African rhythms, their history and evolution, and their trasmutation into Latin culture and music... This one had us tapping our feet—and looking into trips to Senegal.<br />
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It's almost time for the <a href="http://www.curacaoiffr.com/" target="_blank">2018 film festival</a>, and I am far, far behind on the reviews for the 2017 films! So over the next four weeks I'm going to be posting three or four times a week in order to get through them all. They'll be shorter than originally planned, and I do apologize. Yes, it's a time issue, but it's also what I specifically didn't want to happen: I have forgotten a <i>lot</i> about these beautiful, beautiful films. *Sigh*</div>
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Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-47808754381007421272018-01-26T00:05:00.001-04:002018-01-27T12:39:58.197-04:00The #WATWB January Edition: No Space for Sexism — #TimesUpHere it is, the first <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/we-are-the-world-blogfest/" target="_blank">We Are The World blog event</a> of the year—and my first post of 2018!<br />
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In the spirit of the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/01/beyond-metoo-can-times-up-effect-real-change/549482/" target="_blank">#MeToo and #TimesUp</a> momentum that saw the old year out and the new year in (and shows no sign of abating; a nod of appreciation, by the way, to Casey Affleck for <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/25/580815826/casey-affleck-wont-be-presenting-statuettes-at-the-oscars" target="_blank">declining to attend the Oscars this year</a>—let alone hand out the statuettes), I thought I'd start off with a brief but potent story about female empowerment. What makes this story special for me is that it doesn't come from Europe or the U.S. This happened in <i>Sri Lanka</i>, of all places. It underlines that this fight against predatory behavior and sexism in general is a global thing, and I believe it's important to highlight these instances, especially when they're successful, because the only way real change will be effected is by keeping those voices coming, loud and clear. Sing it, sisters—and I'll join my voice to yours.<br />
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This is the billboard that sparked the controversy in Colombo (Sri Lanka's capital). Yes, I would've been offended by it. But I probably wouldn't have done much about it—aside from boycotting the gym advertised, certainly. If I'd been a member there, I'd have cancelled my subscription. I might even have suggested similar action to a friend or two, if I knew they went there, too. Yes, the gym would've gained a black mark in my book... But that would've been it.<br />
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And that's the core of the problem when it comes to sexism, isn't it?<br />
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As women, we learn early in life to keep our opinions to ourselves—especially if they're of a belligerent or non-conformist nature. We learn to dismiss the myriad sexist incidents that make us uncomfortable or downright afraid; we learn to protect ourselves, but always discreetly and without rocking the boat. Everything and everyone around us, from pop culture to our closest friends and family, create emphasis on this. <i>This is how the world works. It's always been this way. Nothing we can do to change it.</i><br />
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</i> That may (or may not) be true, but here's what I love about this moment in history: <i>women are refusing, loudly, globally, to remain silent about it</i>. Maybe nothing will change, I mean <i>really</i> change, but just the fact that it's becoming acceptable to speak out is an encouraging sign.<br />
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Women in Sri Lanka not only spoke out, they took action. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-42788799" target="_blank">Here's what went down</a>. Sure, it's a far cry from the perfect outcome (the replacement sign put up in protest only stayed in place for one day), but—at least it's happening. There's momentum still.<br />
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And it's up to us to keep it going. I don't mean just women; all genders need to participate. This is, after all, a cause for equality, for zero tolerance to discrimination and predatory behavior, for the eradication of objectification culture. And all of us, regardless of gender, stand to benefit from it.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.</b><br />
— Ursula K. Le Guin (who, sadly, died this past Monday—but left a plethora of beautiful words behind. A selection of excellent quotes from her books <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/01/10-powerful-quotes-by-ursula-k-le-guin.html?utm_source=PMNL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=180124" target="_blank">here</a>.)</blockquote>
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This post is part of the We Are The World blogfest, a monthly event created by <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/" target="_blank">Damyanti Biswas</a> and <a href="http://www.belindawitzenhausen.com/" target="_blank">Belinda Witzenhausen</a> that seeks to highlight positive notes—news, stories, developments, discoveries, progress of all sorts—in an effort to keep at bay the hopelessness and negativity so prevalent in the media. This month I'm helping out as a co-host, together with <a href="https://shilpaagarg.com/2018/01/selfless-service.html" target="_blank">Shilpa Garg</a>, <a href="https://simonfalk28.wordpress.com/2018/01/25/watwb-january-2018-kicking-goals-for-goodness-and-culture/" target="_blank">Simon Falk</a>, <a href="https://ericlahti.wordpress.com/2018/01/25/watwb-your-monthly-shot-of-news-that-doesnt-suck-7/" target="_blank">Eric Lahti</a>, <a href="http://cswcllc.weebly.com/blog/making-a-difference-watwb" target="_blank">Lynn Hallbrooks</a>, and <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/" target="_blank">Damyanti Biswas</a>. Please take a hop over to visit them; excellent content guaranteed to spark a light in your soul. And if you'd like to join us, write a post about a wonderful bit of news and add your blog <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/we-are-the-world-blogfest/" target="_blank">here</a> or in the Linky List below. Spread the love, and share the hope!<br />
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Thanks for coming by, and have a great weekend :)<br />
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<!-- start LinkyTools script --><script src="https://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=277138" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- end LinkyTools script -->Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-605286022075204832017-12-23T13:52:00.002-04:002017-12-23T13:52:51.531-04:00Perfetti Sconosciuti: Reviews from the Curaçao Film Festival #CIFFR<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.palacefilms.com.au/perfectstrangers/" target="_blank">Perfetti Sconosciuti</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002645/#director" target="_blank">Paolo Genovese</a>, 2016</div>
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Thursday, April 6th, 2017, 16:15.</div>
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This one blew my mind in all the good ways. Four couples meet for dinner (the single guy's date stands him up, so it's seven instead of eight), all of them long-time friends, some even from childhood. The subject of secrets comes up, and someone says there are no secrets at this table. "We know each other too well." But someone else disagrees, and issues a challenge: everyone put your phone on the table, and during the dinner, any messages that come in will be shared or read aloud, and any calls will be answered on speaker. If there are no secrets, then it should be easy enough to do. Right?<br />
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I'm not a big fan of comedy, generally, but this one I found spectacular. Probably because it's serious subject matter cleverly disguised as comedy. And the Italian sense of humor lends itself particularly well to not just the subject matter itself but to the device of disguise. It's a brilliant take on these times of social media and communication technology, but doesn't stop there. How well do we know those closest to us?<br />
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<br />Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-49574523960359037092017-10-26T22:48:00.001-04:002017-10-27T00:18:19.414-04:00The #WATWB October Edition: Tackling the Impossible<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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On October 11th, <a href="https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/society/2017/10/12/families-of-missing-syrians-tour-london-on-freedom-bus" target="_blank">the Families for Freedom bus began its journey in London</a>. The iconic double-decker, covered in photographs of Syrians who have been illegally detained, disappeared, and even murdered by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashar_al-Assad" target="_blank">Assad</a> regime, carries the families of these detainees, mostly (but not only) women, in a journey across Europe to call for the release, at the very least for information, of their loved ones. Their next stops will be Paris and Berlin, "wherever peace talks are being held", as <a href="https://syrianfamilies.org/en/" target="_blank">their website</a> states.<br />
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Their final destination, as the bus so proudly announces above the windshield, is Damascus. To "pick up" their loved ones. The sheer hope in that sign—it blows my mind.<br />
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And that's why I decided to use it for my <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/we-are-the-world-blogfest/" target="_blank">WATWB</a> post this month.<br />
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There are few things as hopeless as having someone you care about vanish into a corrupt, totalitarian system. In Latin America <a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Latin-Americas-Disappeared-20140829-0068.html" target="_blank">we're well versed</a> in the subject—and we know, first-hand, how unfathomable that particular black hole is. We know, also, how distant any possibility of hope seems. And we know, all too well, the excruciating pain hope can bring when it comes any closer.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image source: <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/london-panel-event-syrian-women-campaigning-detainees-and-disappeared" target="_blank">Amnesty.org.uk</a></td></tr>
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And yet here they are, these women. Against all odds. Against the whole world. Holding their heads high. Holding on to a ragged shred of hope as tattered and worn as the once-favorite blankie of a grandchild long grown and gone.</div>
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We are women-led. We are peaceful. We are determined.</div>
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Can you imagine the courage that must take? I try, but I fail. It's staggering, isn't it? And that's why I find it so inspiring: if they can do it, if they can—after years of not knowing, of being turned away, of being silenced and threatened and ignored—still find a way to hold on to hope, then we <i>all</i> can. No matter the odds. No matter how impossible the goal may seem. No matter how many times you've failed. No matter who stands in your way, who tries to drown out your voice. <i>No matter what</i>.<br />
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Hopelessness is, quite simply, not an option. And the impossible, as they say, just takes a little bit longer.</div>
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This post is part of the <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/we-are-the-world-blogfest/" target="_blank">We Are the World Blogfest</a>, a monthly event created by <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/" target="_blank">Damyanti Biswas</a> and <a href="http://www.belindawitzenhausen.com/" target="_blank">Belinda Witzenhausen</a> to spotlight stories of hope and light. This month I'm helping Belinda out as a co-host, along with extraordinary bloggers <a href="http://shilpaagarg.com/" target="_blank">Shilpa Garg</a>, <a href="http://www.professorowlsbookcorner.com/" target="_blank">Sylvia McGrath</a>, and <a href="https://maryjmelange.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Mary Giese</a>—please hop over to check out their WATWB posts when you get a chance; they're always amazing. And take a peek at the other WATWB participants for a dose of feel-good to last you a whole month. You'll be happy you did :)<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Thank you so much for the visit!</span></b></div>
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Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-52151740629095664932017-10-03T06:00:00.000-04:002017-10-26T22:51:54.188-04:00Julieta: Film Reviews from the Curaçao Film Festival #ciffr<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Julieta</i>, Pedro Almodóvar, 2016<br />
CIFFR: Thurs Apr 6, 2017</td></tr>
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/movies/pedro-almodovar-and-his-cinema-of-women.html?mcubz=0" target="_blank">Almodóvar</a> is a little like Quentin Tarantino for me. No, not in style. I mean in the sense that I either adore or abhor their films. No in-between, no middle grounds... Tarantino and Almodóvar, to me, are either geniuses or morons, depending on what film we're talking about. (To be fair, I do like many more Almodóvar films than I do Tarantino ones.)<br />
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When I saw <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4326444/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Julieta</a></i> on the film festival roster, and even after reading the (raving) reviews online, I wasn't sure what to expect. Also, this was going to be Cor's first Almodóvar film (I'm still trying to understand how I allowed an entire decade together to pass before I made formal introductions), so I was torn between singing Pedro's praises and toning it down enough to manage expectations, in case it turned out to be a bomb of epic proportions. (Because, let's face it, when Almodóvar bombs, he does it in Miltonian grandiosity.)<br />
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But he did <i>not</i> bomb. <i>Julieta</i> will be remembered as one of his masterpieces, along with <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441909/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Volver</a></i> (2006) and <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101026/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Átame</a></i> ("Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down", 1989)—and a few of his coming productions-to-be, since this film evidences a newfound maturity that will surely bring us many, many more riveting stories and extraordinary filmmaking.<br />
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(And, yes, Cor loved it, too.)<br />
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I'm constantly amazed at Almodóvar's uncanny insight into the depths of the female soul. Especially when it comes to mother-daughter relationships. He's done it before, in <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103030/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Tacones Lejanos</a></i> ("High Heels", 1991), in <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185125/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Todo Sobre Mi Madre</a> </i>("All About My Mother", 1999), in <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441909/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Volver</a>, </i>certainly—a film which was hailed as "an ode to female resilience" (Wikipedia). And he did it again with <i>Julieta</i>. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1246047/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Adriana Ugarte</a>, who plays the younger Julieta in the film, was quoted as saying,<br />
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"It's a mystery, but he can feel how we feel and how we are." </blockquote>
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An absolutely brilliant, brilliant film. Looking forward to the next one, Pedro!<br />
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Have you seen it, or are you planning to? I'd love to know what you think if/when you do.Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-68501030806366316442017-10-01T18:46:00.001-04:002017-10-26T22:50:53.487-04:00The #WATWB September Edition: On Earthquakes and the Soul of a Nation (#FuerzaMéxico)Every year on the 19th of September, Mexico City commemorates the anniversary of the 1985 earthquake that leveled the city, and honors those who perished, those who survived, and—perhaps most especially—the millions who took part, over days and weeks and even months, in the search and rescue efforts to find the missing and, later, to rebuild not just the city but the lives devastated by those three minutes the earth shook.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tlatelolco (Mexico City), 1985</td></tr>
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The commemoration includes, every year, an evacuation drill that takes place at 11:00 am. The alarms of the early-warning system sound, and every building in the city empties, people stand in groups in the street until they're given the all-clear, and then everyone mills back up into their offices and cubicles to wait for the evacuation assessment. How fast did we do it? Where did we screw up? What can we do to make it faster, safer, better?<br />
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This year, when the alarms sounded again at just past 1:15pm, most people thought it was another drill. Or a malfunction.<br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Central_Mexico_earthquake" target="_blank">It wasn't.</a><br />
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Mexico City is no stranger to earthquakes. Being built on the bed of what once was Lake Texcoco, the city sits on sandy and clayey soil that amplifies any seismic activity. After 1985, building regulations changed drastically, an early warning system was implemented, evacuation drills were practiced and perfected, and for 32 years the city suffered no major damages, structural or human, during quakes.<br />
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Until eleven days ago. Over three hundred people dead, and counting. Search and rescue efforts are ongoing. Corruption has been revealed and documented, much to the chagrin and embarrassment of politicians and public servants. Lives have been turned upside down, the damage to the city will take months to assess fully, and reconstruction will take millions of dollars. Mexico is in mourning.<br />
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But they're far from paralyzed.<br />
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Instead, there's this:<br />
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And all this is happening without—perhaps even in spite of—the government.<br />
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The feeling all around the city, even as far as Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos (where the epicenter was located) and also damaged, though not as badly as Mexico City, is that Mexicans are taking back the country. For a long time, mainly because of that apathy I talked about earlier, we believed we did, in fact, deserve the government we had. That there were more bad people than good. And therefore that the good ones had no hope. But today there is an undercurrent of optimism, of potential: the evidence—the Topos, the volunteers, the selflessness—seems to prove the old sentiments wrong. The good ones seem to be everywhere. And the bad ones easily identifiable in their government buildings, wearing their silence and sheer ineptitude in the face of a crisis right out on their sleeve for the whole world to see.<br />
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In the trenches, all these long days and late nights of working shoulder to shoulder, regardless of color or religion or education or socioeconomic background, have revealed a brotherhood we had perhaps forgotten, perhaps chosen to ignore, perhaps been swindled into betraying. There is hope, today, that this brotherhood, these sentiments of unity and shoulder-to-shoulder equality, may become the driving force for the change—the <i>awakening</i>—Mexico so desperately needs.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Y que viva México, cabrones!</span></b></div>
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<i>Late at night, hundreds of rescuers, some military, some professionals, most simply volunteers, finally get confirmation that there is no one else trapped in the collapsed building. Instead of giving in to the exhaustion I'm sure permeated every muscle of their bodies, they all stood proud and straight and launched into a spontaneous rendition of the Mexican national anthem.</i></div>
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<i>I am beyond proud to be Mexican.</i></div>
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Want to help México? The New York Times has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/20/reader-center/donate-mexico-earthquake-.html?mcubz=0" target="_blank">a good list of organizations</a> that are doing extraordinary work. My personal favorite, also included in the NYT list, is the <i>Topos</i> ("moles" in Spanish). They're heroes without capes—but with plenty of superpowers. CNN did <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/22/americas/mexico-rescuers-los-topos/index.html" target="_blank">a great piece on them</a>, if you want to find out more. Or you can choose to "stay" (symbolically only, for obvious reasons) in housing damaged by the earthquake. <a href="https://arribamexico.org/" target="_blank">Arriba México</a>, via <a href="https://cadena.ngo/" target="_blank">Cadena.ngo</a>, will direct all proceeds to the fund for rebuilding. In advance, and on behalf of all Mexicans, <i>mil gracias!</i><br />
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This post is part of the <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/2017/03/08/announcing-we-are-the-world-blogfest-watwb/" target="_blank">We Are The World Blogfest</a>, a monthly event intended to seek out stories of hope and light. If you need more brightness in your life, hop on over to the other participants for a healthy dose of feel-good and inspiration.<br />
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Thanks for stopping by!<br />
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<br />Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-68321449819638393482017-08-26T18:22:00.001-04:002017-08-26T18:26:34.288-04:00The #WATWB August Edition: On Hope & the Worthiness of the Effort It Takes<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: start;">Photo by </span><a href="https://unsplash.com/@bearlion" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">Berlian Khatulistiwa</a><span style="text-align: start;"> (</span><a href="https://unsplash.com/" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">Unsplash</a><span style="text-align: start;">). Typography by Guilie Castillo.</span></span></td></tr>
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It's been a hard couple of months, and it hasn't been easy to focus on the positive. Last month, in fact, I found it impossible (one of our dogs died). And then the drama with North Korea started. The situation in <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/venezuela-holds-military-drills-threat-170826160123226.html" target="_blank">Venezuela</a> got much, much worse (Curaçao is like 75 km off the VEN coast)—including a threat of military action from the US and, just yesterday, new financial sanctions. And then there's that spate of white supremacist rallies and demonstrations wreaking havoc in the US.<br />
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Is it any wonder that I'm still struggling to find the light? Maybe not. But I have a choice, don't I? I can allow myself to sink into the darkness, to lose the fragile hold I have on hope, to give in to despair. <i>Or</i>... I can make an effort. Grasp that hope tighter. Feed my strength with the superfood of finding the good in the world.<br />
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Which is why the <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/2017/03/08/announcing-we-are-the-world-blogfest-watwb/" target="_blank">We Are The World blogfest</a>, a monthly event that seeks to spotlight the good stories, the positive outcomes, the reasons for hope, is all the more important. And important, too, that I—that <i>all</i> of us—make the effort to find those stories.<br />
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Those outcomes.<br />
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Those <i>reasons</i>.<br />
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Even if it's something small, something tiny and apparently insignificant compared to the enormity of everything else. Every bit of hope helps. Every bit of feel-good we're able to muster, even if only for a moment, pushes the darkness back. And, inch by inch, we'll gain ground. Because, finally, this is about keeping alive not just the ideals but the <i>reality</i> of the world we want: a world of light, and of hope.<br />
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And it starts with us. <i>Be the light you want to see in the world</i>, right? In order to be any kind of light, though, we need to keep that spark alive in our own consciousness.<br />
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<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/charlottesville-attack-170813081045115.html" target="_blank"></a><br />
<a name='more'></a><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/charlottesville-attack-170813081045115.html" target="_blank">The Charlottesville incident</a>, and all its horrible aftermath, left me reeling. Which is why, when I came across <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/16/us/confederate-monuments-removed.html?emc=edit_nn_20170820&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=64439823&te=1" target="_blank">a list of all the Confederate monuments that were either removed or scheduled to be removed</a> (including one whose removal was paid for by the <a href="http://www.hqudc.org/" target="_blank">United Daughters of the Confederacy</a>!), many immediately following Charlottesville, I felt my faith in humanity start getting pieced back together. This isn't about "erasing" history or "revising" events; most of these statues won't be destroyed but simply rehomed to more appropriate locations. Giving a place of honor—on government property, in a town square, etc.—to a monument commemorating treasonous, to say nothing of racist, personages is such a blatant no-no that I can't imagine how these statues survived so long. (Actually, I can, but that's a subject for another time.)<br />
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Anyway. They're being taken down. Reason prevails.<br />
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On a lighter note, one of our rescue dogs here in Curaçao went viral last month! Okay, "viral" may be something of an exaggeration, but Jules—that's the name of the dog—got his story covered by three European newspapers and several videos on YouTube. This is fabulous for two reasons: first, because it spotlights the work of rescuers here, and given that a large percentage of these rescues are adopted in Europe (not enough homes here, or enough people who care), that spotlight means more potential adopter families can be reached—and thus more Curaçao rescue dogs can find a first-world forever home!<br />
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The second reason, though, is just as important. The spotlight also falls on the organization that did the rescue (and fostering, and healing), <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RescuePawsCuracaoFoundation/" target="_blank">Rescue Paws Curaçao</a>. They're relatively new, and I'm very happy to see them getting attention (and, hopefully, more <a href="https://www.paypal.me/rescuepawscuracao" target="_blank">donations</a> to help them help more dogs). They do fantastic work, as you can see for yourself in the video. Jules was in really bad shape, and they managed to capture his transformation—not just physical but emotional—in brilliant, heartwarming detail.<br />
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<i>(If you watch the video on YouTube, you'll be able to read his whole story in the description.)</i></div>
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So Jules became famous. He was featured in several Dutch newspapers as well as <a href="http://www.irishnews.com/magazine/daily/2017/07/24/news/this-rescue-dog-is-completely-unrecognisable-after-being-showered-with-love-and-attention-1091912/?param=ds12rif76F" target="_blank">the Irish News</a> and on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheIndependentOnline/" target="_blank">The Independent's (UK) Facebook page</a>. Hopefully all this attention will help him get a forever home.<br />
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More than that, however, Jules's story—and that of all the countless little ones like him, who've made a comeback from the brink of death and starvation and have found the strength to live, to trust, to love—is, for me, the best proof that hope is worth all the effort it may cost us to connect with it.<br />
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To close, and because nothing—<i>nothing</i>—beats darkness like laughter...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See more funny vet signs at <a href="http://www.inspiremore.com/funny-vet-signs/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=WMP&utm_campaign=partner" target="_blank">Inspiremore.com</a></td></tr>
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Thank you so, so much for reading. If all, or even some, of the above managed to make you feel better about the state of the world today, please do hop over to visit the other We Are The World participants for amazing and uplifting stories galore. Who knows, you might even have something amazing and uplifting to share yourself, in which case please join in the blog-hoppin' fun! You can add your linky below, and check out the #WATWB guidelines <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/2017/03/08/announcing-we-are-the-world-blogfest-watwb/" target="_blank">here</a>. Thanks also to awesome hop hosts <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/" target="_blank">Damyanti Biswas</a> and <a href="http://www.belindawitzenhausen.com/" target="_blank">Belinda Witzenhausen</a>, and to this month's co-ho<span style="font-family: inherit;">sts: <span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://simonfalk28.wordpress.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s;" target="_blank">Simon Falk</a>, <a href="https://inderpreetuppal.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s;" target="_blank">Inderpreet Uppal</a>, <a href="http://cswcllc.weebly.com/blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s;" target="_blank">Lynn Hallbrooks</a>, <a href="https://ericlahti.wordpress.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s;">Eric Lahti</a>, </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">and</span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"> <a href="https://maryjmelange.wordpress.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s;" target="_blank">Mary J Giese</a>. Hurrah, y'all, for your efforts in spreading the light! </span></span><br />
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<br />Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-14778628558866617642017-08-20T15:42:00.000-04:002017-08-20T15:42:00.334-04:00The Other Side of Hope: Film Reviews from the Curaçao Film Festival #ciffr<i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5222918/" target="_blank">The Other Side of Hope</a></i>, a film from Finnish director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0442454/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Aki Kaurismäki</a> about a Syrian immigrant in Finland and officially labeled a comedy (more on that below), was the opening film for the <a href="http://www.curacaoiffr.com/" target="_blank">Curaçao film festival</a> on Wednesday April 5th. When we were making our selections for the festival, I marked this one as a must-see: immigration, especially from Syria, has taken a prominent role in news and debates worldwide, and after my dushi spewed a few anti-immigration sentiments (on which I swooped down like a rapacious bird of prey, no mercy, no quarter, until I saw a dawning light of reason in his eyes), I thought a story such as this one might help elucidate some of the finer points in the refugee-crisis dispute.<br />
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Opening nights at the film festival are always fun. Plenty of people show up dressed to the nines: women in glittery makeup, glittery shoes, glittery clothes; men in not-quite-so-glittery blazers and even ties. We, of course, wore our standard-issue jeans and flip-flops, and carried bulky sweaters to brave the gelid air conditioning in the theater. We weren't alone; one of the most salient points of beauty and wonder here in Curaçao, at least for me, is the fact that no one really cares what other people wear. Having grown up in Mexico, and especially in Cuernavaca, the kind of place where other people's clothes (and cars, and houses, and jobs, and children, and parents, and friends, and...) take up a good chunk of the collective consciousness, you can imagine how refreshing Curaçao's <b>live and let live</b> attitude feels to me. I find it enchanting to see a woman in shantung and diamonds in earnest conversation with one in dreads and cut-off jeans. No sneaky up-and-down glances, no secret smirks of disapproval or even judgment. None.<br />
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Beyond that particular cultural quirk, festival opening night is also fun because the director of the festival is there to not just introduce the opening film but also to give a short speech that sets the tone for the entire event. This year he spoke eloquently on the issue of immigration and refugees, on war and tragedy and the empathy the world needs to — must, really — exercise in order to heal, and in condemnation of intolerance in all senses and ways.<br />
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Which left us all primed for a wonderful, wonderful film.<br />
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But there was more to come. The actor who plays the Syrian immigrant, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm8631509/?ref_=tt_cl_t6" target="_blank">Sherwan Haji</a>, was there in person to introduce the film, too. Turns out he <i>is</i> from Syria himself, and, just like the character he plays, he emigrated to Finland. Although he emigrated legally and not as a refugee, his history clearly brought a deeper dimension to the character of Khaled, and hearing him speak of the production, the bringing to life of this refugee alter-ego, as well as the conflict now ravaging his homeland, was a powerful experience.<br />
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Given the seriousness of the subject, and in spite of the "comedy" label, I truly was expecting a serious film. It's not cluelessness (well, it is, but not <i>just</i>); rather, I think I'm somewhat biased against comedy as a genre, and the reviews on this one were absolutely raving. So I simply assumed...<br />
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What we got was, yes, a film chock-full of humor of the finest, most subtle kind. Not cynical, not satyrical (well, mostly not), not dumbed-down, not over-the-top, not vulgar, not... well, none of the things that turn me off comedy, really. And yet it is laugh-out-loud funny. Up until the end, that is. I walked out of the theater in tears, and they weren't happy tears. And that, right there, is the core of the success of this film: it portrays the drama of immigration in all its absurdity (the xenophobia, the bureaucracy, the dreams, the sheer helplessness of being at the mercy of an alien culture and its laws), <i>and in all its tragedy</i>. And the reason the tragedy feels so real—palpable, personal—is precisely because it is couched in this seemingly light-hearted envelope. The absurdity (and the hilarity it entails) <i>adds</i>, finally, to the tragedy. And the tragedy takes on a wholly new dimension <i>because of</i> the vehicle of comedy it's delivered in.<br />
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It is a masterful achievement. Then again, Kaurismäki has spoiled us to expect nothing less.<br />
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If you want to read more about the film, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/25/the-other-side-of-hope-review-aki-kaurismaki-refugee-crisis" target="_blank">this Guardian review</a> hits pretty much the same context as my take, and it includes more details of the story itself.Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-24401397390230648972017-07-02T17:34:00.000-04:002017-07-02T18:04:33.856-04:00The #WATWB June Edition: Celebrating Diversity<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">June 30th, was a landmark day for Europe. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/world/europe/germany-gay-marriage.html" target="_blank">The German parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage</a> after an emotional, if brief, debate that resulted in a 393-vs.-226 vote in favor. After three decades of the struggle for equality, and especially given the present rise of conservative policies worldwide, this victory for equality comes as a beautiful, and much-needed, source of hope for a more inclusive climate everywhere. As one member of the German parliament put it during the opening debate, with the legalization of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage" target="_blank">gay marriage</a> "<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">many will receive something, but nobody will have something taken away.” <i>(Thomas Oppermann, parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats)</i></span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: white;">June 30th also brought cause for celebration on a more personal, but still related, note: <a href="http://guilie-castillo-oriard.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-first-dozen-love-story.html" target="_blank">my <i>dushi</i></a> celebrated 20 years since coming to live in Curaçao. He never imagined, back then, that he'd stay on this rock so long; like most financial services employees, he came to the island with a three-year contract, and he hadn't given much thought to what he'd do after. But Curaçao won him over rather quickly. People who had arrived around the same time he did began leaving: to other financial centers, back to Holland, or changing career tacks, marrying and moving away... And, year after year, farewell party after farewell party, Cor stayed. He was offered a couple of good opportunities elsewhere, but—for one reason or another—he ended up turning them down. (Which was a good thing; otherwise we might never have met.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura%C3%A7ao" target="_blank">Curaçao</a> does that to some people. Not to everyone, maybe not even to the majority of expats and immigrants who come here. Lots of people have a hard time with the island; many never adapt, several can't wait for their contract to be up so they can leave. The smallness, the endemic limitations, the heat, you name it: <a href="http://guilie-castillo-oriard.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-drawbacks-of-paradise.html" target="_blank">there are plenty of reasons to dislike living here</a>. But, for some of us, the cons can't hold a candle to the pros.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">The pros might seem obvious; we're a Caribbean island, after all. Sun, sea, flip-flops and shorts, seafood and ice-cold beer, feet in the sand, cocktails with umbrellas in them. Not to undervalue these, but... well, pretty much any seaside destination offers variations thereof. No, what makes Curaçao special—truly special—has to do with diversity. Over 50 nationalities live here; all religions are present, all cultures, all colors. Just imagine the variety of delicious cuisine we have! And food becomes a metaphor for all sorts of wonderful things. No, Curaçao is no melting pot; that would imply a homogeneity of flavor and texture that would become antithesis to diversity. Food, however, says it best: flavors meet in combinations that build on each other, that borrow from each other not just to improve but to broaden the experience. <i>Our</i> experience. Our <i>selves</i>.</span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Today, July 2nd, the island is celebrating <i>Dia di Bandera </i>(Flag Day), and our new Prime Minister—a man who stands for diversity and inclusivity—posted this message on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EugeneRhuggenaath/" target="_blank">his Facebook page</a>:<br />
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</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">TRANSLATION FROM <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papiamento" target="_blank">PAPIAMENTU</a> (mine): <b>"Our island is very diverse. People from different origins, cultures, and religions, together forming a nation which is unique. Which lives from union, united in our diversity. We are proud to live together with each other, here in our <i>dushi</i> Curaçao. Let's keep caring for and supporting each other, so that we can all continue prospering, together under one flag. Happy Flag Day."</b><br />
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</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">And this year it's an especially happy celebration for <i>Kòrsou</i>: our soccer team won the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Caribbean_Cup" target="_blank">Caribbean Cup</a> last week—for the first time! EVER! It was the first time they even <i>made</i> it to the final. That footage in Mr. Prime Minister's video above showing the crowds waving little flags are from the welcome the team got at the airport Tuesday evening. Yes, we're very, very proud of them. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Celebrations at Brionplein last Tuesday, when the Curaçao soccer team returned to the island after winning the Caribbean Cup — for the first time in history!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">But I digress. The point I'm trying to make here is about diversity, and about how sharing space—a city, a nation, a life—with others, with <i>very different</i> others, is no impossible dream. Curaçao is living proof of that. This island is far from perfect—<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Aruba,_Cura%C3%A7ao_and_Sint_Maarten" target="_blank">same-sex marriage, for instance, is still not legal here</a>—and there's certainly room for improvement on all sorts of areas (corruption is a big, big problem; illegal immigration is, too, and there's still a lot of unresolved conflict with Holland), but the thing that makes Curaçao different from other diverse places is <i>the attitude</i>. In Curaçao, difference is normal. No one expects anyone else to be the same as they are. Diversity in background and religion is a given; people take it in stride, take it even for granted: everyone is different. It's not just how it is, but how it should be. And people here do, mostly, get the enormous benefits of a diverse society. </span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">I have hope that the world will, one day, not too far away, take the hint and follow the example.</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br />
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Curaçao's national anthem (original Papiamentu, with the English translation—mine, don't quote me—in italics):<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Lantá nos bos ban kanta</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Raise our voices to sing</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">grandesa di Kòrsou;</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i> the greatness of Curaçao</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Kòrsou, isla chikitu,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Curaçao, small island,</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">baranka den laman!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>cliffs at arm's reach</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Kòrsou, nos ta stima bo</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Curaçao, we love you</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">ariba tur nashon.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>above all nations.</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Bo gloria nos ta kanta</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Your glory we sing</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">di henter nos kurason.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>with our whole heart.</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Nos pueblo tin su lucha,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i> Our people have our struggles,</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">ma semper nos tin fé</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i> but always we have faith</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">di logra den tur tempu</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>we'll achieve every time</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">viktoria ku trabou!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>victory with our toils!</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Ban duna di nos parti</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Let's do our part</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">p'e isla prosperá.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>so the island may prosper.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Laga nos uni forsa</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Let us join forces</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">p'asina triunfá.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>in order to triumph.</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Nos patria nos ta demostrá</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>To our homeland we show</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Honor i lealtat,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>honor and loyalry,</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">meskos na e bandera</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>same as we do to our flag</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">union di nos nashon.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>union of our nation.</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Nos bida lo ta poko</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Our life is a small thing</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">pa duna nos pais,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>to give to our country,</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">luchando uní pa libertat,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>fighting together for freedom,</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">amor i komprenshon.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>love, and understanding.</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">I ora nos ta leu fo'i kas</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>And when we are far from home</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">nos tur ta rekordá</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>we all remember</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Kòrsou, su solo i playanan,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Curaçao, its sun and beaches,</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">orguyo di nos tur.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i> pride of us all.</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">Laga nos gloria Kreador</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Let us give glory to the Creator</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">tur tempu i sin fin,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>always and endlessly,</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">k'El a hasi nos digno</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i> that He has made us worthy</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">DI TA <a href="http://guilie-castillo-oriard.blogspot.com/2015/04/x-y-z-three-last-quirks-of-curacao.html" target="_blank">YU DI KÒRSOU</a>!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"> <i>OF BEING CHILDREN OF CURAÇAO!</i></span></span><br />
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This post is part of the <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/2017/03/08/announcing-we-are-the-world-blogfest-watwb/" target="_blank"><b>We Are The World</b> monthly blog hop</a>, an effort to change the focus of our ill-riddled world to hope and positivity, hosted by the most excellent <a href="http://www.damyantiwrites.com/2017/06/30/does-your-religion-define-you/" target="_blank"><b>Damyanti Biswas</b>, of Daily Write fame</a>, and co-hosted this month by <strong style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.BelindaWitzenhausen.com&source=gmail&ust=1498814380212000&usg=AFQjCNHUd_DWtXdNkRzzJUSyfsPoezN1sQ" href="http://www.belindawitzenhausen.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s;" target="_blank">Belinda Witzenhausen</a>, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://cswcllc.weebly.com/blog&source=gmail&ust=1498814380212000&usg=AFQjCNE3C44dRQsFBFWXRvFYHEAj_1z-IQ" href="http://cswcllc.weebly.com/blog" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s;" target="_blank">Lynn Hallbrooks</a>, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.writer-in-transit.co.za/&source=gmail&ust=1498814380212000&usg=AFQjCNEYqIKxHOSlooUO7swKYJWeVz708A" href="http://www.writer-in-transit.co.za/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s;" target="_blank">Michelle Wallace</a>, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.professorowlsbookcorner.com/&source=gmail&ust=1498814380212000&usg=AFQjCNEyM1qGRsK8jEQy3iPZ6WRid3MWWA" href="http://www.professorowlsbookcorner.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s;" target="_blank">Sylvia McGrath, </a><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://sylauthor07.podbean.com/&source=gmail&ust=1498814380212000&usg=AFQjCNHuzC9VQ3m2NqNwFro9GBmeU7NU0g" href="http://sylauthor07.podbean.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s;" target="_blank">Sylvia Stein</a></span></strong><br />
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<!-- start LinkyTools script --><script src="http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=277138" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- end LinkyTools script --><br />Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-65885259627226773602017-06-05T03:30:00.000-04:002017-06-05T11:56:05.360-04:0030 Odd Questions #Blogfest (via @DebbieDoglady)<div>
<span style="font-family: "source sans pro" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px;">I'm joining Debbie's and Emily's <b><a href="http://thedogladysden.com/30-odd-questions-blogfest/" target="_blank">30 Odd Questions</a></b><i style="font-weight: bold;"> </i>blog hop! Responses in <i>italics</i>.</span></span><br />
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>What did you want to be when you were a kid?</b> <i>A writer. Yep. From the time when I was 8 and a short story I wrote won a school competition. But 'Nancy Drew' was a close second.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Which “Friends” character do you relate to the most?</b> Why? <i> Pffff... I was never really a big fan of Friends. Maybe because I never could relate to any of them? Jennifer Aniston always seemed too much of an airhead, too ditzy, too flighty. Monica seemed cool, but then she had this underlying OCD thing that seemed a tad disturbed to me. And the blond girl with the guitar... she was always so much fun. But... she never made sense. Sorry.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Do you like your name? Why?</b> <i>Ha — good question. Yes, I do like my name. For a large part of my life I didn't; too complicated, too unique, called too much attention to itself. Always had to be spelled, and even then there were mistakes... One of my school diplomas had to be redone because they misspelled my name. But, as time passed, I came to see my name as part, maybe more obvious than for most people, of what makes each of us individual and unique. And there's also the fact that my father invented it (so he claimed), and that made it extra special.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Are you messy or neat?</b> <i>Messy. </i>VERY <i>messy</i>.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>How tall are you?</b> <i>1.73 m. According to <a href="http://www.thecalculatorsite.com/conversions/common/meters-to-feet-inches.php" target="_blank">this site</a>, that's 5'8".</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>How tall were you when you were 10?</b> <i>About... 1.65 m? Whatever that is in feet?</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>What is your guilty pleasure?</b> <i>Just one? OK, then. Neil Gaiman novels. I just finished 'American Gods' for the third (or is it fourth?) time, and I'm a third of the way through Anansi boys — for the first time. </i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>What are you saving money for right now?</b> <i>Save—? Error 404: The requested URL was not found on this server.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>How many Pringles can you eat at once?</b> <i>Not a Pringles fan.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Tea or coffee?</b> <i>Coffee. </i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Are you an introvert or an extrovert?</b> <i>Introvert. Though most people who know me would disagree. (I'm such an introvert that I keep my introvert nature secret </i>:D<i>)</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>What will be your Halloween costume this year?</b><i> Okay... I outgrew Halloween costumes a long, long time ago. I'll dress up for a Pimps & Whores party, or any other themed thing, but... nah, not Halloween.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Sweet or salty?</b><i> Salty, baby. All the way.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Favourite social media?</b><i> Facebook. But I'm trying to wean myself from it.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Who is the last person you kissed?</b><i> Kissed-kissed, as in lips and tongue and all? My partner, Cor. But if you mean just cheek-kiss-hello, then... someone at a friend's farewell get-together on Friday. </i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>What is your favourite breakfast?</b> <i>Something real 'Murican, like eggs over easy with bacon and sausage and hash browns and dollar pancakes with lots and lots of butter and syrup.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>When is your birthday?</b> <i>17 Feb 1973</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>When did you start your blog?</b> <i>June 2011</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>What is your opinion on the Kardashians?</b><i> The who?</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>How would you describe your style?</b><i> My... dressing style? My writing style? My hair style? Unclear. I'll go with dress. Probably 'beach bum' describes it best: shorts, flip flops, t-shirt. That's it. For all occasions.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>What colour is your hair?</b> <i>Brown. With ever-multiplying, but very natural-looking, gray highlights </i>:D</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>What colour socks are you wearing?</b> <i>See above for 'beach bum' style definition.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>What is your dream job?</b><i> Writing fiction.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Dogs or cats?</b><i> Both. I've never understood this 'I'm a cat/dog person' differentiation. To me, cats and dogs are like two sides of the same coin; they balance each other out perfectly. At the moment, though, I only have dogs. (But, given <a href="http://lifeindogs.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">my rescue proclivities</a>, that could change any moment.)</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>What makes you weird?</b><i> Pfffff... The list is probably endless. And, of course, it's all about what context you use for 'weird'. Here in Curaçao I'm weird at all sorts of levels: I'm a 'Latina', but I dress like a Dutchie; I speak perfect English but don't speak either Dutch or Papiamentu; I don't have children (and don't even like them)... In Mexico I'm weird because I chose a place no one has ever heard of to live. And because I speak Spanish funny after so long under the Venezuelan influence of Curaçao. And because I'm an only child (in Mexico? seriously weird). I'm weird everywhere because I left a great job, and the corresponding great salary, to write and rescue dogs. </i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Celebrity crush?</b> <i>Wow. Leonard Cohen. T.S. Eliot. Roger Waters, right now (have you listened to <a href="spotify:album:2XhQwji1ixgjca0XzkiTek" target="_blank">his new album</a>? BLOWN. AWAY.)</i> <i>More shallowly, the guy that played Superman in the new movie—but with whom I fell in love for his role as Charles Brandon in 'The Tudors'.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Opinion on cigarettes?</b><i> YUM. Been a smoker since I was 13 (that's... 31 years). No, I wouldn't recommend taking up tobacco to anyone, given the health detriment, but... yeah, I love smoking.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Do you want/have children?</b> How many?<i> Nah. Not my thing.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Three favourite boy names?</b><i> Michael. Santiago. Duncan.</i></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: justify;"><b>Three favourite girl names?</b> <i>Kiana. Alexandra. Inés.</i></li>
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "source sans pro" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px;">This was so much fun to answer, and I'm very much looking forward to reading everyone else's responses. If you enjoyed reading this and would like to join the fun, check out the guidelines <a href="http://thedogladysden.com/30-odd-questions-blogfest/" target="_blank">here</a> and sign up in the linky list below. Feel free to hop over to the other participants and get to know them... Some really entertaining and creative responses that are sure to make you chuckle—and several cool blogs and bloggers that you might be missing out on.</span></span><br />
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: "source sans pro" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 19px;">Thanks for reading!</span></span><br />
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<!-- start LinkyTools script --><script src="http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=278974" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- end LinkyTools script -->Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436812892124383603.post-47437217542296892572017-06-04T15:24:00.001-04:002017-06-04T16:35:58.919-04:00Elections in Mexico this Sunday. Key Elections.This coming Sunday, June 4th, there will be elections in Mexico. Not presidential; only three states will be voting for new governors (and a fourth will be electing some 200 mayors). But these elections — the results in one state in particular — will shape the future of Mexico, for at least the next decade.<br />
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Elections for mayor are happening in the state of Veracruz, and elections for governor in Nayarit, Coahuila, and the state of Mexico. Yes, we have a state called after the country; someone must've run out of naming ideas... No, not really. It's more like the country is named after the state—or, actually, the city. In brief, when the Spanish conquered this land they'd call <i>La Nueva España</i> (New Spain, stretching from Nicaragua all the way up to British Columbia), they divided it into <i>reinos, </i>which translates literally as 'kingdoms' but it's in practice more like provinces, and one of these provinces, because it included the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexica" target="_blank">Mexica</a> capital of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan" target="_blank">Mexico-Tenochtitlan</a> (now rather in ruins), was named <i>Mé</i><i>xico</i>. After independence from Spain came about and Mexico City was proclaimed the capital of this brand-new nation (1824), the city separated from the state into the <i>Distrito Federal</i>, DF for short (kind of like Washington, DC ). And so we ended up with both a city and a state (and a country) named México.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sqBGO1oWQ-A/WS-M7P_1haI/AAAAAAAAfA0/hy5iQCxp_k83HG8V0Toto1pjlyInLeWvgCLcB/s1600/NuevaEspana1821.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="1600" height="544" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sqBGO1oWQ-A/WS-M7P_1haI/AAAAAAAAfA0/hy5iQCxp_k83HG8V0Toto1pjlyInLeWvgCLcB/s640/NuevaEspana1821.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>La Nueva España</i>, circa 1821. At one point, the territory also included Cuba and the Philippines.</td></tr>
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Back to the present. As I write (and as you read), the electoral process <a href="http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2017/06/04/mexico/1496529288_244889.html" target="_blank">is going on</a> in the state of México—and it promises to be one of the dirtiest ever. Which, if you know anything about Mexican elections, you know that's saying a lot. For as long as I can remember, and as long as my parents can remember, elections in México have always been 'arranged'. We all knew upfront who the new president would be, who the new governors, mayors, members of parliament, all of them, simply by virtue of the party they belonged to. The PRI held on to its dictatorship hand-me-down rule for 70 years by becoming masters of electoral fraud—and, of course, this resulted in a growing cynical defeatism in the population, which played right into their hands.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Until 2000. In a landslide victory—which had to be truly landslide in order to beat the machinery of fraud—Vicente Fox (of the PAN) won the elections for president. And we all thought that was that, the PRI was done, let them go back to the hole of corruption and self-interest they came from and leave us the hell alone.<br />
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Of course, that didn't happen. In many states, the PRI never quite surrendered (or was made to surrender) its hegemony. The state of México—EdoMex, for short—is one such; the PRI has ruled that state uninterruptedly, for 90 years. NINETY. This state has never been ruled by another party, and therefore it has—logically—become something of a PRI stronghold, the fort where wounded PRI warriors go to recover, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth#Cretan_labyrinth" target="_blank">Knossos</a>-like labyrinthine dungeons where the darkest, most sensitive secrets of the PRI machinery are vaulted away from the light of day, and the impenetrable walls behind which new crops of PRI Uruk-hai are bred.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fub_uJZmZV0/WTRaeTkK2DI/AAAAAAAAfF4/qZu32vsfTBM-QsGT7w0avyhmJD34qAh8ACLcB/s1600/edomex01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="660" height="470" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fub_uJZmZV0/WTRaeTkK2DI/AAAAAAAAfF4/qZu32vsfTBM-QsGT7w0avyhmJD34qAh8ACLcB/s640/edomex01.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The state of Mexico or EdoMex, as commonly abbreviated.</td></tr>
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It is from EdoMex that our current president, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrique_Pe%C3%B1a_Nieto" target="_blank">Enrique Peña Nieto</a> (the world's most notorious nincompoop, until the US elected The Donald to the highest office), hails from, where he was groomed and indoctrinated, where he made his first public-office 'practices', where he launched his presidential bid—and, allegedly, where most of the funds to back him, legal and illegal, were sourced.<br />
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If México is ever to get rid of the PRI and the corruption it has not just enabled but legitimized and, indeed, made an intrinsic part of the Mexican way of life, it must involve taking back the state of México and dismantling the bastion of power and safe passage it represents for the PRI.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_k7MEYr4ONY/WTRaHCEhPII/AAAAAAAAfF0/UP67w7KPyzM_Zf9t67JnXJXFlikROVGtwCLcB/s1600/delmazo_2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_k7MEYr4ONY/WTRaHCEhPII/AAAAAAAAfF0/UP67w7KPyzM_Zf9t67JnXJXFlikROVGtwCLcB/s640/delmazo_2017.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alfredo del Mazo Maza, PRI candidate for governor of the State of México (EdoMex) — and cousin of president Peña Nieto, pictured in the background.</td></tr>
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Today, for the first time in—well, ever—there's an actual chance that the PRI might lose its fortress. And not to an even slightly like-minded, center-right-winged candidate, no. The polls predict a near-tie between <a href="https://g.co/kgs/gOZB19" target="_blank">Alfredo del Mazo</a>, the PRI candidate for governor (and president Peña Nieto's cousin), and his opponent (one might say <i>direct opposite</i>) from the newcomer left-wing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Regeneration_Movement" target="_blank">Morena</a> party, <a href="http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2017/06/01/mexico/1496300579_282839.html" target="_blank">Delfina Gómez</a>. After Brexit and Trump, we're all (painfully) aware how wrong polls can be, but even the prediction itself is already a landmark moment; never in EdoMex history has there been anything close to a tie, predicted or real, between the PRI and any other party. <i>Never</i>. And the PRI-run federal government knows it, which is why they're running scared.<br />
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This election has shown us an unprecedented sight: the federal government's direct participation—nay, interference—in the campaign. Call centers, door-to-door canvassing, distribution of thank-you notes from the PRI candidate along with goods and even the infamous <i>salarios rosas </i>(literally 'pink salaries'), a barely disguised bribe to housewives; the smear campaign against the other candidates, especially Delfina Gómez<i>, </i>and the <i>acarreados</i>, the people brought to voting booths in busloads and given any number of trinkets (on top of the ride) in exchange for their promise to vote for the PRI. All of this provided and funded via federal pesos.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bjO7XS5YY7g/WTRcrFG1fBI/AAAAAAAAfF8/IcPqyfT8UjI0cKh0iwz_bF3ZUyHz_FZGgCLcB/s1600/Desktop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bjO7XS5YY7g/WTRcrFG1fBI/AAAAAAAAfF8/IcPqyfT8UjI0cKh0iwz_bF3ZUyHz_FZGgCLcB/s640/Desktop.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Delfina Gómez, Morena candidate for governor of EdoMex. The photo on the lower left corner is her home: 52 square meters of unpretentiousness and humility.</td></tr>
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And it's understandable. If the EdoMex is lost to another party, let alone to one with as much enmity towards the PRI as the Morena party, the PRI (and the president, and the president's cronies) may be at the beginning of their end. Presidential elections are to be held next year, in the summer of 2018. The EdoMex elections are expected to be not just a thermometer for the political climate nationwide but also, given that the temperature, politically speaking, doesn't really need mercury and grids to be felt, a test of the PRI's machinery in retaining control, in imposing their rule (yet again).<br />
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A loss, in this state in particular, would mean—to the PRI, and to the country at large—that the PRI's time is over. A win by Morena's Delfina Gómez would mean the country is ready for change, for progressive and socially conscious change—and it would be the most strident rejection of the PRI, and all it stands for. It would mean, in short, <i>hope</i>.<br />
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<br />Guilie Castillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09006999087139126972noreply@blogger.com4