80 Oscar 08

I thought about live blogging the 2008 Oscars, but of course, got too caught up in our Oscar Party. The highlight of the evening simply had to be Jon Stewart bringing Marketa Irglova back out to give her acceptance speech. In an awards ceremony full of surprises, most notably the best and supporting actress categories (Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton respectively), Irglova and her co-writer, Glen Hansard, won the award for best original song for “Falling Slowly” from Once. Director Bill Conti inadvertently cut off Irglova during her acceptance speech after Hansard concluded his. In what might go down as one of the all-time great Oscar moments, host Jon Stewart invited Irglova back out to the stage to say her thank-you’s. The 19-year-old, who acts twice her age, gave perhaps the greatest acceptance speech of the night. She concluded her humble speech: “The fact that we’re standing here tonight, the fact that we’re able to hold this, it’s just proof that no matter how far out your dreams are, it’s possible. [...] And, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream, and don’t give up. This song was written from the perspective of hope, and hope, at the end of the day, connects us all, no matter how different we are.”

Long Live Convergence…

At its most basic level, the convergence culture about which Henry Jenkins writes depends on marketing and the market interaction between producers and consumers. Of course, his intention is to explore this relationship to much deeper, more significant ends; however, his study has to begin with marketing, and it does, in a way, with his discussions of Survivor and American Idol. Yet Jenkins would be the first to argue that this branch of convergence culture did not begin with the internet or cell phones.

I have recently been working on a promotional DVD for a professor’s collection of Biblical film posters and memorabilia. Along with a vast collection of original posters, the collection contains lobby cards, film stills, and press books. The press books are absolutely priceless for their descriptions of marketing strategies and product tie-ins. Here are some images from the pressbooks for two classic Biblical epics, Quo Vadis and Solomon and Sheba. Pay close attention for the suggestion that a group of fraternity brothers, or other mad-cap groups, steal the cardboard cutout of Gina Lollobrigida to increase the popularity of the film. [Read more]

Convergence

Traditionally speaking, most serious scholars would scoff at the idea of turning to popular culture for lessons in political discourse, religious consciousness, or educational formation. Yet this is just what Henry Jenkins, a professor of humanities and the founder and director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, has done in his recent book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. The result is a wildly entertaining and eye-opening read that will forever change the way you view pop culture. It is simultaneously a direct challenge for all would-be educators to revolutionize their practices and for all of us to become more informed, proactive consumers and citizens. [Read more]

A Bright Commentary…

Depending on the film or those involved in its creation, commentaries can either be truncated courses in filmmaking or shallow stories about what the actors did in their downtime on the shoot. Guillermo del Toro and Pedro Almodovar both give great, really educational commentaries, and Roger Ebert’s infectious love for cinema makes his commentaries on classic films like Casablanca or Citizen Kane irresistable. However, commentaries involving “outsiders,” folks other than directors, editors, or actors, offer an interesting perspective as well. Such is the case with an optional commentary track on the new science fiction DVD, Sunshine, directed by Danny Boyle. Along with the usual director’s commentary, the DVD includes an additional track by Dr. Brian Cox, a physicist from the University of Manchester and chief science advisor for the film. Not being a filmmaker or a professional critic, Dr. Cox goes a little overboard with his positive assessment of what is an average to good science fiction film (it had a relatively short theatrical release in early 2007), yet if you are at all interested in the relationship between science and religion, or science in and of iself, you will find fewer more interesting commentaries than this one. [Read more]

A Fistful of Quarters

For those of you who think that competitive video gaming began with Halo tournaments…. Wait, did any of you actually know about the world of competitive video gaming? Well if you did, then you most likely know that it began long before Madden tournaments back to the prehistoric days of the earliest arcade games like Missile Command, Centipede, and perhaps the most popular arcade/video game of all time, Donkey Kong. The documentary, King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters captures the always fierce, sometimes underhanded world of competitive video gaming through the lives of numerous middle-age teenagers, specifically Billy Mitchell, the self-proclaimed God of competitive video gaming, and Steve Wiebe, an eternally down-on-his-luck guy next door in search of much more than his name at the top of a high scores list. [Read more]

More Nominations…

Rumor has it the writers’ strike will end later this week. Apparently, the big issues have all been settled and small details will be ironed out before week’s end. This bodes well not only for fans of shows like Lost and The Office, but for Oscar fans as well, seeing as the Academy Awards show relies on writers to actually pen those lame introductions that the presenters monotonously recite from the teleprompter. Of course this is not the writers’ best defense for a pay raise.

Nevertheless, we can look forward, with some hope, to the return of the most popular movie awards show later this month. Until then, head on over to Beliefnet to check out their nominees for most spiritual film and performances of the year and vote in the 2008 Beliefnet Film Awards.

Film and Religion: A Review

A new book has made an exciting contribution to the on-going study of the relationship between film and religion. Film and Religion: An Introduction by Paul V. M. Flesher and Robert Torry is an example of the kind of serious “religious critique” of films that must take precedence in this field if it is to thrive. Flesher and Torry are keenly aware of the socio-political influences on films and how the use of religion in film can be a way to respond to social crises of the day. Unlike many books on film and religion, this one includes discussions of films that treat Jewish, Islamic, and Buddhist inspired films as well. [Read more]

Super Sunday

Happy Super Sunday! Super Bowl Sunday is the high holy day of American Civil Religion, bordering on holiday status. I often joke that if I were elected president, I would make the Monday following the Super Bowl a national holiday. Want to write me in? Theologians and scholars of religion have paid increasing attention to the connection between sports and religion and spirituality over the past few decades. Mercer University Press has a running series of books that explore the connection. One of these books, From Season to Season: Sports as American Religion, edited by Joseph L. Price, includes a variety of essays on baseball, football, basketball, hockey and wrestling, and a couple of essays on sports and religion in general. Two of Price’s essays, “From Sabbath Proscriptions to Super Sunday Celebrations: Sports and Religion in America” and “The Super Bowl as Religious Festival” offer insight into this holiest of days. [Read more]

Shame Ain’t Worth It…

I have wanted to write about the HBO crime drama series, The Wire, for quite some time now. However, I have been unable to focus on any single point of spiritual entry into a series with such an unimaginable wealth of rich characters and complex scenarios on which to reflect. I also find it difficult to write about television programs as complex as The Wire or Lost because the story lines need to play out. While speculation on the nature of Lost’s island is just that, commenting too quickly on the unstobable nature of a character on The Wire might make you look foolish when they fall victim to a barrage of bullets in the next episode. Yet after watching an exchange between two characters in the most recent episode of the fifth and final season, I could not wait any longer. [Read more]