"A lost cat, a giant talkative frog and a tsunami help a bank employee without ambition, his frustrated wife and a schizophrenic accountant to save Tokyo from an earthquake and find a meaning to their lives in the animated feature Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. Based on stories by acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami (Drive My Car), the debut of composer Pierre Földes won the Jury Special Mention award at the renowned Annency Animation Film Festival.
Tokyo, a few days after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Kyoko suddenly leaves her husband after spending five days in a row glued to unfolding earthquake footage on TV. Her helpless husband Komura takes a week’s leave from work and heads north to deliver a box and its unknown contents to two young women. His colleague Katagiri, a simple debt collector by profession and an awkward loner in life, returns home one evening to find a two-metre-tall frog asking for his help to save Tokyo from an imminent earthquake. Through memories, dreams and fantasies, Kyoko, Komura and Katagiri, influenced by their visions of earthquakes—which are manifested as evil willow trees, giant earthworms, secret vows, mysterious boxes and a dark, endless corridor—attempt to rediscover their true selves."
Gregg Chadwick Tokyo (Shibuya Crossing) 30”x22” monotype on paper 2023
Since I was a kid, I have spent a number of holiday seasons in Japan. The time from just before Christmas to just after New Year's Day is a magical time in Japan. Families gather from around the country as students and workers take time off and return to their homes for celebrations of the season. The food is marvelous, the conversations are rich, and the moments are precious. My monotype on paper "Tokyo (Shibuya Crossing)" is an artistic nod to my memories of Japan. As we move into 2023, I wish you a Happy Year of the Rabbit! And I would like to wish a warm Happy Birthday to artist and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki who was born on this day in 1941.
Pixar animator Enrico Casarosa said, "Miyazaki has this uncanny ability to add a childish sense of wonder to his stories. He’s able to make us feel like little kids again."
Gregg Chadwick Spirited Away 60"x48"oil on linen 2019
My oil on linen painting "Spirited Away" is an artwork that bridges realms. Light pierces shadow. The past enters the future. A woman on a meditative walk in the hills of Miyajima, Japan seems lost in reverie. Echoes of Japanese film, especially the animated works of Hayao Miyazaki illuminate our vision.
About ten years ago, I woke up from a dream that seemed to have been pulled from a Miyazaki film. In my dream a tender sapling reached towards the light as it sprouted from my wrist. Above, russet clouds moved in a cerulean sky. I look to my dreams as openings rather than fortunes. Yet, since I had recently returned from Tokyo, I remembered that in Japan the first dreams of the New Year, hatsu-yume 初夢, traditionally provide markers for the dreamer's upcoming year. I wrote about first dreams in my New Year's Day post on January 1, 2023 and feel that since my sapling dream ten years ago, I have made a conscious effort to reach for the light even when the world around us seems to be caught in a storm of hateful speech and actions.
Celluloid Dreams at the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Japan
In December 2010, I was fortunate to visit the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan where I learned much about Miyazaki and his art. Filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata founded their animation studio in 1985 and named it after an Italian airplane first produced before World War II: the Caproni Ca.309 Ghibli. The word ghibli in Italian refers to the hot dry winds that blow across the Sahara desert.
Hayao Miyazaki
Sketch for My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro)
pencil and watercolor on paper 1988
(Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Japan)
Hayao Miyazaki was born on January 5, 1941 just months before Pearl Harbor and the brutal battles in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. As a small child growing up in greater Tokyo, Miyazaki drew scenes of aircraft and aviation most likely inspired by his father's family business which built airplane parts for Japanese Zero fighter planes and also in the later years of the war, by his remembrances of the waves of Allied bombers which firebombed much of Tokyo into smoldering ruins.
Much of Miyazaki's mature work reflects his distaste for heedless violence and warmongering. Miyazaki also deeply cares about the environment and the place of natural beauty in a heavily industrialized Japan. Thirdly, many of Miyazaki's films feature a strong, brave, and resourceful main female character. On his birthday, I would like to give thanks to Hayao Miyazaki for his talent, vision, and deep concern for humanity.
Gregg Chadwick December Eyes/ Tokyo 72"x24" oil on silk 2011 Private Collection, Venice, California
Gregg Chadwick Flor De Asfalto (for Sergio Arau) 56”x86” oil on linen 2017
With his music, words and images, Sergio Arau has inspired me to create a series of paintings that feature him as the main character in my painted movies. Rock Star, actor, director, screenwriter, and artist Sergio Arau has often performed while wearing gear honoring Mexico's most famous wrestling star El Santo (The Man In the Silver Mask). Known as lucha libre, Mexican wrestlers such as El Santo are defenders of the poor and vulnerable. By taking on the persona of the Luchador (wrestler), Josh Kun writes in Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America, Sergio Arau and his bands have mixed "the traditional with the contemporary, the rural with the urban, the American with the Mexican, the charro with the rockero."
My paintings in Luchador's Dream carry Sergio Arau into a Los Angeles seemingly pulled from the lyrics of his songs or gathered from scenes of his films that were left on the cutting room floor.
Gracias Sergio!
The exhibition runs from September 7 - October 7, 2017
(Luchador's Dream is, in true rock n' roll fashion, a completely unaffiliated, and unofficial satellite exhibition of 2017: Año de México en Los Ángeles / Mexico in Los Angeles 2017)
What: Luchador’s Dream - Inspired by Sergio Arau (New Paintings by Gregg Chadwick)
Where: La Galería de la Cocina - Santa Monica Art Studios, 3026 Airport Ave. SM 90405
When: Opening - September 15, 2017, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
"The world is a dangerous place...not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it" -Albert Einstein In the light of the horrific, fascist, white-supremacist violence against peaceful folks in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017, I find this film produced by the US War Department during WWII to be instructive. Clips from the film are appearing on social media sites. The full film is presented here. From IMDB: "Financed and produced by the United States War Department in 1943, and shot at the Warners studio, although it was distributed through all of the major studios' film exchanges and also by National Screen Services free to the theatre exhibitors: A young, healthy American Free Mason is taken in by the message of a soap-box orator who asserts that all good jobs in the United States are being taken by the so-called minorities, domestic and foreign. He falls into a conversation with a refugee professor who tells him of the pattern of events that brought Hitler to power in Germany and how Germany's anti-democratic groups split the country into helpless minorities, each hating the other. The professor concludes by pointing out that America is composed of many minorities, but all are united as Americans."
Michael Bond at home in 2014. He said of Paddington Bear: ‘He’s never put down or deflated. He has the naivety of a child and the sophistication of an adult.’ Photograph Courtesy: Geoff Pugh/Rex/Shutterstock
Much more on Michael Bond and Paddington in The Guardian.
Ed Catmull's "Creativity, Inc." is much like the films of Pixar itself: a balanced mix of sheer enthusiasm and careful planning. Catmull writes,"The thesis of this book is that there are many blocks to creativity, but there are active steps we can take to protect the creative process." Catmull writes about the history and vision of Pixar as well as the strategies and mechanisms that have kept the creativity flowing for an amazing run of great animated films - second only in my mind to the stunning work of the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki and his Ghibli film studios. Cattmull's book is a must read for anyone involved in the arts. From painters, to writers, to actors, to musicians, to film-makers, to game designers - all will benefit immensely from Catmull's encouragement to embrace the unknown while learning to communicate creatively. Link here: Creativity, Inc
Currently under production by the Oscar winning companies Breakthru Films and Trademark Films, the animated film Loving Vincent delves into the life and art of Vincent Van Gogh. Each frame of the film is an oil painting on canvas that will lend a sense of immediacy and painterly touch to Vincent's story.
Loving Vincent is sourced from over one hundred and twenty of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings and from the 800 letters written by Van Gogh during his lifetime.
The trailers below give hints of the animated feature to come.
Generosity of Eye: Art Transformed into Education is a must watch documentary by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall that documents William Louis-Dreyfus, Julia's father, as he explains why he decided to sell his bountiful art collection to benefit the Harlem Children's Zone - an educational program in New York, created by Geoffrey Canada to break the cycle of generational poverty for the thousands of children and their families in the Harlem community.
Julia is often on screen with her father and their scenes together are rich with familial affection. As Julia interviews her father about the art that William has collected over the years and the artists who have created it, she is often overcome with emotion as she discovers the depth of her father's passion for art and for justice.
Geoffrey Canada, William Louis-Dreyfus, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia says, "Dad doesn't just collect art, he collects the artists who create it." For her entire life, Julia's dad has collected paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. Currently, the collection has grown to over 3,000 pieces and includes artworks by Kandinsky, Dubuffet, Giacometti, George Grosz, Red Grooms, Robert Traylor, Catherine Murphy, Stone Roberts, Graham Nickson, Raymond Mason, Rackstraw Downes, Jean-Baptiste Sécheret, Nicola Hicks, Robert Birmelin, George Boorujy, Thornton Dial, and many others.
In a telling scene in the film, William explains his thoughts on society's reaction to injustice: "I think there are two types of people that make up our political outlook. One is a person who sees something happening and thinks that it might happen to him and therefore is worried about it. He notices it and thinks to himself,"That could happen to me." Therefore, he is against the injustice that is happening to a third party. And then there is another kind of person who looks at the injustice and says to himself,"Thank the Lord that is not happening to me." So the fact of it's happening to another person he is for. He is for it psychologically because by virtue of this happening to another person, it's not happening to him. The other guy is against it because when he sees it, he thinks it might happen to him. Therefore, he is against it."
William's passions are inspiring: art, justice, and humanity.
by Gregg Chadwick Tonight, a stunning cover of David Bowie's Haunting song Space Oddity was released from space by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station. The imagery is stunning, reminiscent of the film Moon directed by David Bowie's son Duncan Jones. Sometimes life really does imitate art, even while orbiting earth in a tin capsule in space. UPDATE: Since I posted this last night, Chris Hadfield's video has gone viral with over a million views and counting! David Bowie's Facebook editors loves the clip stating,"It’s possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created." Their Facebook posts continues:
you may recognise the name of one of those involved in its creation. We’re talking about Chris's fellow Canadian, the lovely Emm Gryner, who was a part of the Bowie live band in 1999/2000. Here’s what she said on her blog (http://smarturl.it/EmmBlog) regarding her involvement: “The task was in front of me. I came up with a piano part. i then enlisted my friend, producer and fellow Canadian Joe Corcoran to take my piano idea and Chris' vocal and blow it up into a fully produced song. Drums! mellotrons! fuzz bass! We also incorporated into the track ambient space station noises which Chris had put on his Soundcloud. I was mostly blown away by how pure and earnest Chris' singing is on this track. Like weightlessness and his voice agreed to agree.And voila! And astronaut sings Space Oddity in space! I was so honoured to be asked to be a part of this. You wouldn't get too many chances to make a recording like this and not only that, to make music with someone who - through his vibrant communications with kids in schools to his breathtaking photos to his always patient and good-humoureddemeanour - has done more for science and space than anyone else this generation. Planet earth IS blue, and there's nothing left for Chris Hadfield to do. Right. Safe travels home Commander! ”
And the New York Times has a nice piece on Chris, the video, and his time in space.
As March drew to a close, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band played a concert that Australian music writers have lauded. I wish I could have been there to see Springsteen and the band rip it up at Hanging Rock.
Incident on 57th Street in Australia Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Live at Hanging Rock - Second Night - 31-03-2013
Major international musicians often perform outdoor concerts at the Hanging Rock reserve. Leonard Cohen graced the venue in 2010 and last month Springsteen performed two shows at the conclusion of the Australian leg of his 'Wrecking Ball' tour. The musical venue at Hanging Rock is temporary and currently used about once a year for large concerts.
Though I have spent quite a bit of time travelling through Australia over the years, I have not been to Hanging Rock in person. But, I have been there in the visions of painting and film, especially Peter Weir's remarkable Picnic at Hanging Rock. Weir's film, based on the novel by Australian author Joan Lindsay, focuses on a group of girls at a fictional Australian women's college who vanish during a Valentine's Day picnic at Hanging Rock in 1900.
Roger Ebert described Picnic at Hanging Rock as "a film of haunting mystery and buried sexual hysteria" and remarked that it "employs two of the hallmarks of modern Australian films: beautiful cinematography and stories about the chasm between settlers from Europe and the mysteries of their ancient new home." That chasm between European culture and indigenous Australia especially revolves around the conception of time. Joan Lindsay in her autobiography, Time Without Clocks, describes how these mysteries felt to her:
"There were certain days when I sat at my typewriter in the empty green-aired room feeling like a deep-sea fish suspended in its natural element. Not only in my fish tank but outside in the sheltered valley all natural objects seemed in a state of suspension as they do immediately before an earthquake. It was a characteristic of the Marsh and perhaps had something to do with the old volcanoes seething and boiling so far below the earth’s crust that even the geologists hadn’t discovered them." - Joan Lindsay, p124 (Time Without Clocks)
Art in all its guises evokes the mysteries of time and the most compelling creations leave the questions unanswered.
La Notte, my latest painting, was begun shortly after I returned from my latest excursion to Venice, Italy. Venice, poised between sea
and land, is a place where light, shade, color, and reflection merge and recombine
in the city's watery environment. In this mirrored world, past and present seem to
coexist. History’s shadows slide in and out of darkened alleys and slip along narrow canals.
The color and light found
in the artworks of the Venetian painters Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian,
Tintoretto, Veronese, and Tiepolo, seen up close in the city of their creation,
is always revelatory. These artist's artworks glow like light upon water. This effect of
reflected, sparkling light bouncing off canals, is called gibigiane in Venetian dialect. The liquid nature of transparent
oils glowing from within, as if light lived within the pigment, seems to fix this quixotic glow onto canvas.
Please watch as 9 year old Caine Monroy, who built an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad’s used auto parts store, is about to have the best day of his life...
A tribute to the great Shakespearean actor John Neville, who died this week, and the magical Terry Gilliam film, The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen, which stars John Neville, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Winston Dennis, Jack Purvis, a very young Sarah Polley, a teenage Uma Thurman, Oliver Reed, Robin Williams, Valentina Cortese, Sting, and a universe of all-star talent.
John Neville as Richard II
photo by Angus McBean, via Hurok Attractions
The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen is the fantastic fable of an 18th century German aristocrat, his talented henchmen and a little girl in their efforts to save a town from defeat by the Turks. Their thrilling adventures include a trip in the gullet of a a giant sea-monster, a voyage to the moon, a dance with Venus who arrives on a half shell and an escape from death himself .A marvelous, under-appreciated film.
Featuring music from the Michael Kamen score: The Munchausen Waltz.
The First Grader, a new film directed by Justin Chadwick and produced by Richard Harding and Sam Feuer, opens today May 13, 2011 in Los Angeles and New York.
Since I wrote the following review in March, I have seen the film again and attended a marvelous question and answer session with Justin Chadwick, Naomie Harris, Richard Harding and Sam Feuer. I met Justin at that event and he mentioned that people were asking him if his brother had written a review of the film. Justin and I are not knowingly related but I am sure if you follow the genetic path you will find that there is a connection somewhere in the distant past. In honor of my artistic brothers and sisters and their beautiful film, The First Grader, I am posting my thoughts on the film below.
I recently attended a pre-release screening of this poignant and numinous movie set in the Rift Valley in the mountains of Kenya. The First Grader, like Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, seamlessly combines story and place to create an illuminating beacon for our time.
The First Grader portrays the story of Kimani Maruge, an 84 year old Mau Mau veteran who helped liberate Kenya from the British. After the Kenyan government announced in 2003 that free schooling would be offered for all, Maruge, played marvelously by Kenyan actor Oliver Litondo, arrives at a primary school to finally get his chance at an education - long denied under oppressive colonial rule and unavailable to him since independence.
As the story unfolds, the realities of rural Kenyan life intermix with Maruge's traumatic memories of torture, incarceration, and the murder of his loved ones, which he endured steadfastly for the sake of freedom. These very real scenes make a powerful emotional impact but with a remarkable reverence, a profound sense of calling and self respect despite injustice. There is an artistic elegance to this film that combines truth telling with transcendence.
The First Grader, based on a true story, uses a school full of actual Kenyan pupils playing themselves. Oliver Litondo (Maruge) explains that high up in the Rift Valley "education is coming in as a new thing." The youngsters were not surprised to see an older student, there was already a fifteen year old in a class of six year olds, so the students accepted Maruge as one of them - just another student seeking an education like they were. Shared goals and shared experiences create a bond between the young students and Maruge.
There are also important shadow elements in the story written by screenwriter Ann Peacock. The First Grader deftly covers the post World War II history of Kenya: moving back and forth from Maruge's struggle against British rule to his struggle against tribal prejudice and mistrust of his motives in 21st century Kenya. By combining traditional Kenyan music with his own compositions, composer Alex Heffes creates a rich sonic landscape.
The film, compellingly crafted by cinematographer Rob Hardy, opens with a gaggle of school children running through mist shrouded trees to their isolated but beckoning new school. On this first day of the new term hundreds of children and their parents jostle to find a place. The exuberance of youth contrasts with the dogged strength of Kimani Maruge and the desperate drive of parents struggling to gain a coveted spot at school for their child.
Naomie Harris plays teacher Jane Obinchu who grows to support Maruge's fierce drive to learn. The joy of learning and the bond between teacher and students is so evident in The First Grader that while watching the film, I felt as if the audience was compelled to grab a sharpened pencil and join the class.
The First Grader is a transcendent human story about confronting injustice and achieving redemption. The film spreads balm for old wounds and lifts the spirit with hope for the future. The First Grader is highly recommended.
"The real challenge is now—getting people into the cinema as the film has been so warmly received and supported around the world winning many audience awards. It is important that alongside the blockbusters there are stories that can inspire and audiences can experience together in the cinema. We don’‘t a huge machine on this film so I hope that people talk and tell their friends"
- Justin Chadwick (Interview w/indieWIRE.
The First Grader, a new film directed by Justin Chadwick and produced by Richard Harding and Sam Feuer, has been gathering cinema festival awards as it moves towards a May 2011 release. This week The First Grader won the award for best feature film at the Palm Beach Film Festival.
I recently attended a pre-release screening of this poignant and numinous movie set in the Rift Valley in the mountains of Kenya. The First Grader, like Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, seamlessly combines story and place to create an illuminating beacon for our time.
The First Grader portrays the story of Kimani Maruge, an 84 year old Mau Mau veteran who helped liberate Kenya from the British. After the Kenyan government announced in 2003 that free schooling would be offered for all, Maruge, played marvelously by Kenyan actor Oliver Litondo, arrives at a primary school to finally get his chance at an education - long denied under oppressive colonial rule and unavailable to him since independence.
As the story unfolds, the realities of rural Kenyan life intermix with Maruge's traumatic memories of torture, incarceration, and the murder of his loved ones, which he endured steadfastly for the sake of freedom. These very real scenes make a powerful emotional impact but with a remarkable reverence, a profound sense of calling and self respect despite injustice. There is an artistic elegance to this film that combines truth telling with transcendence.
The First Grader, based on a true story, uses a school full of actual Kenyan pupils playing themselves. Oliver Litondo (Maruge) explains that high up in the Rift Valley "education is coming in as a new thing." The youngsters were not surprised to see an older student, there was already a fifteen year old in a class of six year olds, so the students accepted Maruge as one of them - just another student seeking an education like they were. Shared goals and shared experiences create a bond between the young students and Maruge.
There are also important shadow elements in the story written by screenwriter Ann Peacock. The First Grader deftly covers the post World War II history of Kenya: moving back and forth from Maruge's struggle against British rule to his struggle against tribal prejudice and mistrust of his motives in 21st century Kenya. By combining traditional Kenyan music with his own compositions, composer Alex Heffes creates a rich sonic landscape.
The film, compellingly crafted by cinematographer Rob Hardy, opens with a gaggle of school children running through mist shrouded trees to their isolated but beckoning new school. On this first day of the new term hundreds of children and their parents jostle to find a place. The exuberance of youth contrasts with the dogged strength of Kimani Maruge and the desperate drive of parents struggling to gain a coveted spot at school for their child.
Naomie Harris plays teacher Jane Obinchu who grows to support Maruge's fierce drive to learn. The joy of learning and the bond between teacher and students is so evident in The First Grader that while watching the film, I felt as if the audience was compelled to grab a sharpened pencil and join the class.
The First Grader is a transcendent human story about confronting injustice and achieving redemption. The film spreads balm for old wounds and lifts the spirit with hope for the future. The First Grader is highly recommended.
