film – praag.org

DRC bans Belgian film on rape

The Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday banned a documentary film about a doctor who treats war rape victims, leading the filmmakers to say the government was trying to silence debate about sexual violence.

Media Minister Lambert Mende gave no reason for the decision to ban The Man who Mends Women (L’Homme Qui Repare Les Femmes), which is about Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege, the founder of Panzi Hospital in the eastern city of Bukavu.

Sexual violence by militias and the army is a defining atrocity of a conflict in eastern Congo that has lasted two decades, and the hospital has treated thousands of rape victims.

Several high-level perpetrators have recently been convicted.

Human rights groups have accused the army of using rape as a weapon, but military leaders objected to the film as slanderous, said Thierry Michel, the film’s Belgian co-producer.

“The banning of the scheduled screening of this film is a way of gagging (Mukwege) … and (the voice) of the victims of these wars and tragedies that the country has lived through for 20 years,” Michel said in the statement.

The film, co-financed by Belgium’s foreign affairs ministry and the International Organisation of La Francophonie, was scheduled to be screened in the capital, Kinshasa, next week and Bukavu the following week.

Mukwege won the Sakharov Prize, Europe’s top human rights award, last October and was tipped for last year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Source: AFP

Cashing in on British sexual deviance

UK firms are cashing in on British sexual deviance. Meanwhile, emergency services are on standby for a spate of “bedroom antics-gone-wrong.”

It was revealed Tuesday that hardware store B&Q was preparing its staff and stocks for a spike in cable tie, rope and duct tape sales, as featured in Fifty Shades, a pornographic film to be released on mainstreet.

Another company is actually tapping into the nation’s unhealthy fever, meanwhile.

The “intense female Viagra ice cream,” or “Vice cream,” as the company dubs it, contains a pleasure enhancer Lady Prelox. The company says they hope to see women “screaming for Vice Cream on Valentine’s Day.”

The London Fire Brigade say they are “concerned” the release of Fifty Shades of Grey in cinemas will lead to a “spike” in cases of people stuck in handcuffs and rings.

They attended nearly 400 such incidents since April last year, including 28 involving entrapment in handcuffs and the removal of nearly 300 rings, some from male genitalia. They have also been called out to aid men whose penises have been trapped in toasters, vacuums and other household equipment.

“The Fifty Shades effect seems to spike handcuff incidents so we hope filmgoers will use common sense and avoid leaving themselves red-faced,” he said.

The land of the brave however, should be renamed as the land of the proprietous. Scotland, was revealed to prefer “spooning” to actual sex in a recent poll.

The South East of England ranked themselves 9 out of 10 on a scale of how “kinky” they are.

The alchemism of modern physics

In his international bestseller, A brief history of time, the most famous physicist of our time, Stephen Hawking, stated that the last/final matryoshka doll in the field of Physics has been unpacked – Planck’s Constant. With this accomplished, he writes that the what of the Universe would thus soon be answered, automatically.

Because, from here, it follows that it would simply be a question of a “discussion” between “philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people… ” to unravel the why of the Universe/Existence – and once that has been done, “we would know the mind of God”.

But alas… were the whole caboodle only that simple.

A thought experiment: imagine a massive cosmic cataclysm, in our teeny tiny sector of the Universe, destroys all life on planet Earth, in an instant. Now the question: would the Rover Mars lander still exist, after said cosmic cataclysm… which killed us all?

Disciples of scientific realism would tend to say yes, because they believe in the existence of an “external reality”. Idealists, on the other hand, would tend to say no, because “reality” is seen as a “creation” of the human mind. This dichotomy in the hard sciences would, roughly, translate into the positivist-interpretivist paradigm in social science research – the famous battle lines of the infamous “paradigm wars” that have been raging since the mid-80s.

But alas, both abovementioned positions are right, or wrong… simultaneously. For if we are all dead, the very question – “does the Rover Mars lander still exist?” – can neither be posed, nor answered… for we are all (already) dead by then, remember? Yet is very safe to assume that it does indeed (still) exist, for people see other people die around them every day, and the world/existence/reality stays the same nonetheless, mostly. So, we could safely assume that the last living soul on this planet (before said cosmic cataclysm wipes him/her out) will know that the Rover Mars lander is still all forlorn, yet “real” on Mars. But, once s/he is no more, there is no certainty about its existence anymore.

This means that “knowledge of” is bound to “looking” (like said last person on Earth), not “knowing”. This is not unlike the famous Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment to explain the sheer complexity of the paradox underpinning quantum mechanics. In other words, an inevitable “two-state” state of “knowing” must be accepted. Ditto the existence of God – where faith is “looking”. The more knowledgeable reader will recognize Kantian (epis/-ontological) trancendental idealism, especially as it pertains to Husserl’s “intentionality-bound” phenomenology, at play here.

So, what does this all have to do with the (most) famous physicists of age? Well, it’s all about them dreaming/promising to finally determine only one “state of existence”, e.g. Hawking’s “knowing the mind of God”.

Hawking does indeed have an epis/-ontological “two-state” position… for as he wrote:

“Yet if there really is a complete unified theory, it would presumably determine our actions. And so the theory itself would determine the outcome of our search for it!”

Nudge nudge, equal-outcome Egalitarianism. But, be that as it may…

It means that he both holds onto a realist, as well as an idealist position. In other words, humans “created” the (ultimate) “truth”, i.e. scientific idealism/aestheticism, yet also “discovered” it… as in Platonic mathematics (scientific realism). But then, didn’t he promise that Planck’s Constant would “dissolve” one of these states, permanently?

Enter the film Interstellar – lauded and applauded by the likes of Hawking and Kip Thorne – the latter being the “science” advisor of the film. The plot line is very simple. A “dustbowl dystopia” (fatally) threatens humanity’s future. The protagonist, Cooper (and his trusted robot, TARS) are sent into space to save the physical existence of the human race. They, predictably, land up in the middle of a black hole – where TARS mysteriously, “discovers” (nudge nudge Platonic mathematics) the secret to (anti)gravity… thereby saving humanity. Now this is all fine and dandy, were it not for the alchemist nonsense when, after TARS has found the answer to (anti)gravity in the “external reality” of the black hole, it, TARS, answers Coop’s question: “How did they create it?”, with the answer: “You’ve created it.”

In other words, both “states” of the (final) Truth are accepted, yet Hawking’s matryoshka doll (Planck’s Constant) won the day, by “looking” into the box in which Schrödinger’s Cat “hides” – thus “dissolving” one of its states (of its being/existence).. and then we all lived in Lala Land afterwards.

Meaning that – apart from the huge elephant in the room, causality – modern physics simply hasn’t comprehended what the brilliant philosopher of science, Thomas Kuhn, has been trying to tell them since…

Ergo, modern physics is trying to have its (Utopian) cake – by “dissolving” the Cartesian Clock versus Quantum Theory paradigm – and eat it.

This is Alchemism, not Science.

Oscar-entered movie hints at Brazil’s underlying racism

by Peter Debruge

Tucked among the 76 submissions competing for this year’s Oscar foreign-language prize is a film quite unlike any that has previously represented Brazil, whose cinematic output has been more directly associated with flashy, slum-set pics like “City of God” and the high-energy “Elite Squad” series.

Kleber Mendonca Filho’s “Neighboring Sounds,” by contrast, unfolds almost entirely on a residential block in the city of Recife — the same street where the filmmaker lives. Taking place in a world that everyday Brazilians might recognize, “Sounds” reveals the unspoken fear wealthier locals feel toward their neighbors, which drives them into private apartments high above the streets, and the ambiguous threat posed by the lower classes.
According to Mendonca (in Portuguese, “filho” means “son,” similar to “junior”), Brazilians live by a form of nonconfrontational racism — always present, but seldom acknowledged.

What makes “Sounds” so potent is the way it dares to examine these prejudices without identifying them outright, relying on audiences to recognize the phenomenon.

“I actually made it a point with the actors and my colleagues never to use the word ‘racism’ in the film, so we would be on the same realistic ground as Brazilian society, which doesn’t see itself as racist but practices racism every day,” explains Mendonca, who was heavily influenced by such American films as “Poltergeist,” “E.T.” and “Halloween,” in which fantastic things unfold within seemingly normal suburban environments.

“I thought it would be interesting to make a film that takes place in kitchens and living rooms, but to shoot it with the feel of 1970s Panavision, knowing that would create this tension between what you see and the situations being depicted,” explains Mendonca, who explored many of the same themes in previous short films. “If you watch all of them, you end up with ‘Neighboring Sounds,’ which is kind of embarrassing,” the director says, though he has hardly exhausted all he has to say in his first narrative feature.

In addition to two Brazil-based scripts he is developing, Mendonca stumbled across a project called “The Crew” after meeting screenwriter Mark Peploe on a jury at Locarno.

Highly impressed with “Neighboring Sounds,” Peploe (who penned Michelangelo Antonioni’s “The Passenger” and won an adapted screenplay Oscar for co-writing “The Last Emperor” with Bernardo Bertolucci) asked Mendonca if he would consider reading a script Peploe himself had written. “It’s adapted from something that Michelangelo and I worked on together for a number of years,” Peploe related. – variety.com

Ben Affleck succeeds Christian Bale as Batman

US actor Ben Affleck will replace Christian Bale in the next Batman film, Warner Bros. Pictures said.

Affleck will appear in a Batman-Superman mega flick slated for release in 2015 that follows on the heels of this summer’s Superman hit “Man of Steel.”

Bale, who played the title role in Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy, had left the doors wide open for a new successor.

“We knew we needed an extraordinary actor to take on one of DC Comics’ most enduringly popular super heroes, and Ben Affleck certainly fits that bill and then some,” said Warner Bros. president Greg Silverman in a statement.

The film, which is not yet titled, will be directed by Zack Snyder, who was behind this summer’s “Man of Steel” starring Henry Cavill of Britain.

Cavill will appear alongside Affleck in the 2015 film.

“Ben provides an interesting counter-balance to Henry’s Superman. He has the acting chops to create a layered portrayal of a man who is older and wiser than Clark Kent and bears the scars of a seasoned crime fighter, but retain the charm that the world sees in billionaire Bruce Wayne,” Snyder said.

“Man of Steel” has earned some $650 million worldwide and $290 million in North America alone.

Affleck is no stranger to superheros, having played Matt Murdock in the 2003 flop “Daredevil.”

More notably, Affleck arrived at the pinnacle of Hollywood accomplishment in 2013 when his movie “Argo” won the Oscar for best film last February. – AFP

Now it’s Tunisia – US embassy stormed there

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Several dozen protesters briefly stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Tunisia’s capital Friday, setting fire to cars and raising a flag with the Muslim profession of faith written on it as part of violent demonstrations in the region against an anti-Islam film.

Outside the embassy, thousands of demonstrators gathered, including stone-throwing protesters who clashed with police, an Associated Press reporter on the scene said. Officers responded with tear gas and gunshots.

Protesters also set fire to an American school adjacent to the embassy compound, and firefighters were prevented from approaching by the large crowd. Thick columns of black smoke wafted through the neighborhood. The group that breached the embassy’s outer wall was pushed back outside by police and special forces.

A Tunisian employee of the embassy with an injured leg was taken out by stretcher to an ambulance. It wasn’t immediately clear if there were any other injuries.

Crowds angry over an anti-Muslim film ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad have assaulted U.S. embassies across the Middle East.