Parallel Cinema

By Lizabel Mónica Visual Artist Nestor Siré has set up an art gallery inside today's most popular Cuban media. El Paquete is a 1 Terabyte size changing database of digital content, mostly pirated, and transferred informally through USB external hard drives. El Paquete is nothing like television, any form of radio, or the Internet. It is a huge media phenomenon run through hand-to-hand distribution and outside of government control. There, Siré has managed to insert an Art Gallery. WHO IS…

As viewers watch Pleasantville, they may find themselves feeling sad and uneasy at the interruption and corruption of this seemingly perfect world. To me this movie can be seen as having similarities to the novel Brave New World. In Brave New World books are banned because they create knowledge and individuality begins to arise through one’s thoughts and imagination. In ‘Pleasantville’ the uncolored citizens burn all the books because they do not understand. In both novel and movie the people…

As the European nations sought to decrease the power of the Ottoman Empire, they introduced nationalism to the Arabs. The British seduced local Arab leaders to leave the Ottoman Empire and create their own state and Caliphate. The Arabs joined the fight wishing to gain their independence from the Ottomans. They wanted their own identity and a unified Arab region but what happened was the Arabs were separated into mandates governed by the French and British. The promises for Sheriff Hussein were…

Through the film version of Dickens’s work, Cuarón makes an incomparable adaptation of Great Expectations, but without being able to get rid of the literary original version of Dickens and even leaning in David Lean’s former adaptation. TYPE OF ADAPTATION This adaptation is a perfect example of a freely adapted novel. This approach considers the source simply as "raw materials", as a "pretext" for inspiration for a work of cinematic art in its own right. There are taken certain situations,…

Abstract Long Ago, as a means to running errands and go on carrying normal activities, people started getting involved in commerce. It started in Amman when the Circassions and Chenchens first settled in the valley and later immigrants form Bilad Al Sham. More and more merchant shops appeared, therefore forming the market. These shops, later on, developed in one direction into sophisticated ‘arcades’ and in others into today’s street markets. i.e: Share' Al Wakalat. Due to weather conditions,…

a horse galloping on a dirt path. Film never lost its popularity; film kept developing. It started with the simple scenes that were less than a minute and moved on to stories, and then non-fiction stories. Next there was sound and color, and then parallel storylines and camera movement. With each new advancement in film, the viewers were wowed. It is insane how far the film industry has come in a little more than a century; it has advanced from a passing train to amazingly realistic special…

Comedy is seen and enjoyed by many all around the world, claiming its place as a staple of human culture. Comedy has but one rule: it must be funny. Other than this, humorists can take any and all liberties to fundamentally change the affect of their art; resulting in a wide array of comedic styles. The “comedy” umbrella somehow shelters the slapstick fun of Laurel and Hardy, the deadpan observations of Steven Wright and the surrealism of Monty Python. These comedians, along with all of their…

With the illegalization of segregation and the election of a black president, white Americans are quick to say that racism is a thing of the past. It is true that in the U.S., nicknamed appropriately as the great “Melting Pot”, cultural exchange is far from rare. However, in far too many cases, cultural appreciation is used as an excuse for the racist or ignorant to use artifacts or participate in practices sacred to an oppressed culture. White Americans specifically often feel a certain…

With advancing technology, films run parallel with literature. As a result of new technology development, “the ease of making a video now approaches the ease of writing” (Kelly, 101). The title of Kevin Kelly’s essay Becoming Screen Literate grasps the overall similarity between the literary…

The film industry is one of the most influential parts of pop culture through its wide reaching audience and celebrity fan base. Therefore it makes sense that, in terms of society and pop culture, one of the ways that gender is challenged most is in cinema. What makes a man? What makes a woman? The answer is generally whatever society says a man or woman are. But since the film industry has the ability to shift what it’s audience, society, believes in,…