"Midway" - documenting the tragedy of global pollution

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Every day we see evidence of littering and pollution, yet accept it as “part of life”. We seldom apply the concept of globalization to litter and garbage. This trailer for “Midway” focuses on an uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific, showing how our garbage is killing albatrosses.

Caution: Some scenes in this trailer are disturbing.

http://youtu.be/LpfWCpRvY9c

http://www.midwayfilm.com/

MIDWAY (trailer) – a film by Chris Jordan

The MIDWAY film project is a powerful visual journey into the heart of an astonishingly symbolic environmental tragedy. On one of the remotest islands on our planet, tens of thousands of baby albatrosses lie dead on the ground, their bodies filled with plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch. Returning to the island over several years, our team is witnessing the cycles of life and death of these birds as a multi-layered metaphor for our times. With photographer Chris Jordan as our guide, we walk through the fire of horror and grief, facing the immensity of this tragedy—and our own complicity—head on. And in this process, we find an unexpected route to a transformational experience of beauty, acceptance, and understanding.

We frame our story in the vividly gorgeous language of state-of-the-art high-definition digital cinematography, surrounded by millions of live birds in one of the world’s most beautiful natural sanctuaries. The viewer will experience stunning juxtapositions of beauty and horror, destruction and renewal, grief and joy, birth and death, coming out the other side with their heart broken open and their worldview shifted. Stepping outside the stylistic templates of traditional environmental or documentary films, MIDWAY will take viewers on a guided tour into the depths of their own spirits, delivering a profound message of reverence and love that is already reaching an audience of tens of millions of people around the world.

http://vimeo.com/25563376

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111 Years of Beatings, Abuse & Death at Florida Boys Home

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At Boys’ Home, Seeking Graves, and the Reason

MARIANNA, Fla. — Nobody is quite sure how many boys’ bodies lie beneath the grounds of the notorious Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, or which one is Thomas or Owen or Robert.

Nobody is quite sure how most of them died — the cause is often listed as “unknown” or “accident” — or why a great number were buried with such haste.

The scattered graves bear no markings: no names, no loving sentiment. The only hint of a cemetery are the white crosses that the state planted in the 1990s, belatedly and haphazardly.

From the time it opened in 1900, as the state’s first home for wayward children, until it closed in 2011, as a residential center for high-risk youths, Dozier became synonymous with beatings, abuse, forced labor, neglect and, in some cases, death. It survived Congressional hearings, state hearings and state investigations. Each one turned the spotlight on horrific conditions, and little changed.

Read full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/us/10dozier.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130210

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Los Hermanos Macana Dance the Tango

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Enrique & Guillermo de Fazio, Argentine brothers who have become the legendary dance couple known as Los Hermanos Macana.

http://youtu.be/S-mkR-KoPts

Via google translate from http://www.teatrocondominio.it/Tango.html:

The undisputed stars of tango festival in all continents, the brothers Macana (Enrique and Guillermo De Fazio) are considered one of the most talented dancers pairs of the landscape, "tango" international. The meaning of their name "Macana", derived from the popular slang of Buenos Aires, identifies them as picaresque, playful, smart guys. [...] Los Hermanos Macana, [recall] the origins of the tango as "compadritos" (the thugs of the time) who, for lack of women, were forced to train and dance with each other, eager to excel, showing their skills and [...] talents.

Skinny, tall, elegant, ironic and a little “braggarts”, Los Hermanos Macana surprise us, [capturing us] with power and masculinity in unique interpretations, with clean and fast steps, combined with lots of fun. The originality of their style [sets them apart] as a pair [...] able to mix talent, fun, energy and great respect for the magnificent art of tango. Their provocative interpretation transmits lightness and ease of movement [as] the dance is so natural for them, but for us it is [breathless]. To embellish the show, [they perform with] extraordinary dancers and live music by an outstanding orchestra of the new generation "tango" in Buenos Aires.

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, the brothers Macana begin their career as a dancer in 1995, [studying] with the greatest masters of Argentine Tango [such] as Juan Carlos Copes, Eduardo Aquimbau, Gabriel Angio y Natalia Games, Mingo Pugliese y Raul Bravo. After two years [they were] invited to debut in one of the most prestigious milongas of Buenos Aires, where they [performed] their first dance scene in "Mala Junta" which sealed their success. From that performance on, invitations [came] from the most famous milongas and tango theater productions in Buenos Aires and the rest of the Americas. But also abroad [they conquered] with their art, countries across Europe, Australia and [Malaysia]. Robert Duvall and Francis Ford Coppola chose them as icon "tango" in the film "Assassination Tango" (2001). They have shared the stage with Placido Domingo and were invited by the famous dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov to participate in the great Festival of the Arts in Sarasota USA.

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