Peace is a Verb

That is the theatrical trailer of Abigail Disney's debut film, Pray the Devil back to Hell. She produced this award winning documentary film that tells the inspirational tale of the women of Liberia who joined forces, overlooking all religious and class differences, to bring peace to their war torn country.

Disney came to Lawrence University to talk about her film, her experiences and about peace. The story that the documentary covers is truly extraordinary and why I had never heard of it before. It made me wonder about if a country like Bangladesh (where I'm from in case y'all didn't know) were to be inflicted by some genocide, if the women of the country would be able join forces, hold their own and make peace happen like these women did. In a muslim country like Bangladesh, if the women were to take their clothes off, I don't even know what would result from that.

Disney said, "Peace is a process, it is not an event."
That is a very strong, inspirational statement and she very eloquent in describing her views on peace and war. The sad part about talks regarding major topics such as peace, war, the environment is that they always run the risk of sounding trite very easily. The message is very important but it is truly hard to hold the audience's attention when speaking about ideologies that the audience is being exposed to everyday. That is why I think it is really important to find new and interesting ways to retell these stories.

I liked the part when she said, 'There is no such thing as a smart bomb. All bombs are dumb."

Paste Magazine November 2009

The Evolution of the Hipster.
I don't really know if it is alright for me to post this but someone sent me a link to this and I thought it made an interesting commentary regarding the consumerist ideologies pertaining to the hipster culture. Please feel free to check it out from this link and look at their other pages. Real shiny and colorful.

That Crazy Man

The so called science loony, Buckminster Fuller really reminds me of my dad. I don't know if that's a good thing or not but there is something about the way he tried to explain triangles that reminded me of my father who, to this day, refuses to use deo or soap because it's just not "what nature intended".

Mr.Fuller was not crazy. He was adventurous, perhaps a little foolhardy but in the end, an inspiration to the people. The interesting thing about Mr.Fuller is that he never really "invented" anything that changed the world but he certainly had ideas that paved the way for those who want to change the world today. It was not so much his actual inventions but his attempts and his ideologies that makes me want to be him (almost). When I saw the film documenting his life, I just couldn't stop thinking about his tenacity and conviction towards his projects and how I really wish I had the balls to be like him and confront life as a series of experiments. Nothing about his trials or exploits intrigues me more than the way he wasn't afraid to present the world with his outlandish ideas. I feel as though every artist or creator must look at his life and gain inspiration to let go a little.

Food in My Teeth

I am currently working on playing through the hours of west coast hipster confessionals that my friend has caught on video over the winterbreak. My general concept for this project is to create a video documentary that comments on current youth subcultures in the United States and their relationship with consumerism. My main focus is on the 'Hipster' subculture which started off in the 50's as a counterculture resisting the white collar dumbing down of individuality.

My initial idea was to make a video very similar to another video I had made for class which was also a commentary on American consumerist culture.

Please feel free to check it out as it provides a general overview of the way I want to present my observation of current youth subcultures. I hope to be able to translate the fact that I am an outside observer (not a citizen of the United States) into the video as my personal opinions regarding the matter is a direct result of my unfamiliarity with it.