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We--all of us--have been made for goodness. We have been made for laughter. We have been made for caring, sharing, for compassion for we do indeed inhabit a moral universe. Yes, goodness is powerful.

Desmond Tutu

. . .

To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition...to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived: this is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

. . .

Love shared anywhere transforms situations everywhere. Your life is your corner of the garden; tend to that and you tend to the world

Marianne Williamson

 

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Entries in basic joy children's film festival (3)

Monday
Nov092009

You can't be serious

'My Funny Family' from hailey bartholomew on Vimeo.

Feel like a virtual field trip?  A trip to one of my favorite new-to-me sites is a treat. This artistic Australian family of four--photographers, designers, film-makers, gigglers--knows how to have F-U-N. The Bartholomews make me want to invite more fun + zaniness + joy into my life.  See them at You Can't Be Serious here. And their Christmas card photo has inspired me...look for a little zaniness from the W clan come December.

p.s. We're getting back on our feet around here! More soon...

Thankful for: tears (nothing like a good cry) ~ tealight candles ~ washer+dryer

Date11.9.2009 | Comment2 Comments
Saturday
Oct172009

Here there be wild things

When I think of the movie Where The Wild Things Are, I will think of Sam wiping his eyes, flat palmed with both hands, as he cried at the end.


{please don't go...I'll eat you up, I love you so...}

I noticed it from the corner of my eye and tried to give him the courtesy of not noticing. But tears sprang to my eyes (these things being contagious) and I thought Well, of course. Sam is Max, pretty much. Or was. His imagination. His emotions. His wild and tender ways. His affinity for me and home (where someone loved him best of all...). His sometimes loneliness as his older sisters (although reluctantly) abandon him to play in the world of childhood & make believe alone.

Sam is well acquainted with the wild things and where they are. Spike Jonze has said that he intended to create a movie that captured the book's spirit and what it is like to be a nine-year-old boy. Sam got that. He's not nine anymore but he recognized the geography of that age and connected with it.

Not everyone in the theater did. There was a three-year-old behind us who, after the first monster scene, said I don't want to see this movie anymore (it really isn't for younger kids...Pixar it's not). A few people grumbled under their breaths as we shuffled out of the theater that it wasn't what they expected, wasn't a kids' movie, was quiet and strange*.

Well, yes. I can see that. But it made me want to ask, "have you really read the book?" and "do you really remember what it's like to be a child?" There are scary emotions and swift boats to tantrums. There are rumpuses (rumpi?) and imperfect families and journeys back to forgiveness. There's moodiness and confusion and questions and thin, thin boundaries between delight and disappointment. Everything looms large and monsterish...life so wholly determined by other people's agendas. That's The Point.

It's not like anything you've seen. It is weird. Please though, if you go, just get in the boat, let go, and let the wild rumpus start. It's a great (and trippy) ride.

*then again, there were adult WTWTA fans dressed in footie pajamas and zigzag crowns at the theater, too. They seemed happy with it.

Date10.17.2009 | Comment9 Comments
Thursday
Jun122008

Basic Joy Children's Film Festival

If I could, I would pitch a fantastic open tent in a wide grassy field and, once a week or so, show children's films during the summer. And I'd invite you. Non-Disney, out-of-the-mainstream, old and new treasures that the whole family can love. With snow cones and fresh popcorn and lemonade amidst the fireflies. I don't know, maybe someday I really will do it.

But in the meantime....I'll dream about it right here + share my picks in internet land, a kind of virtual Basic Joy Children's Film Festival. Who knows? Maybe it will be a fairly regular feature here {"fairly regular" gives all sorts of leeway, really, doesn't it?).

You come, too--it's not the same as gathering under a tent together in the twilight, but you could rent one of these when your family is ready for a quiet break this summer (libraries have great DVD libraries and NetFlix pretty much has everything you could want). And shoot me an email if you have a favorite children's movie you'd like to recommend (Matt? Mom & Dad?).

So, for our first premiere pick, I've chosen one that the kids and I watched recently and loved:


A nine-year-old Iranian boy accidentally loses his sister's only pair of shoes on the way home from the shoe repair shop. In order to avoid getting in trouble (or cause more expense for their poor family), Ali and his sister, Zohre, decide to keep it a secret and come up with a solution of their own. They share his sneakers: she wears them to school in the morning, he wears them to school in the afternoon. When a race is announced, Ali decides to enter in order to win one of the prizes, a pair of sneakers.


Set aside any reservations you might have about your kids reading subtitles or being able to identify with a brother and sister in Iran. The director Majid Majidi manages to create a magical, engaging, simple story that is universal. Love between brother and sister. Joy in daily life. Wanting something really badly. Seeing needs beyond your own. Plus, in his review of Children of Heaven, Roger Ebert said, "My guess is that the race and its outcome will be as exciting for many kids as anything they've seen at the movies."

One of my favorite things about this movie is that it is about childhood. Not about kids doing adult things or about animals talking or about superheroes...it's about children navigating their childhoods. This is a great springboard to discussions in your family about comparing your own life with another culture (both similarities and differences), responsibility, family relationships, compassions, and caring for others.

Good for:
about seven and up (or younger, if you don't mind reading the subtitles out loud for non-readers)

Not for:
I honestly can't think of anyone this isn't for.

Questions to get you started talking:
What do the shoes symbolize? What do you think happened after the end? What would you have done if you lost the shoes?

Notes:
~The cinematography has the feel of a 1960s or 1970s film.
~It was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign film in 1998 but lost to Life is Beautiful.
~ The movie had a budget of less than $200,000. Amazing!

[edited to say: sorry for the re-posting...technical difficulties on my end]

Date06.12.2008 | CommentPost a comment...