Tanaka film goes to Tokyo

Documentary Dream Show—Yamagata in Tokyo 2010
September 18th (Sat) –October 1st (Fri): Eurospace
October 9th (Sat) –October 29th (Fri): Theater Pole-Pole Higashi Nakano

Tanaka-san will not do callisthenics

Katoomba winter

sun through petals

Jimmy Reid: 1932 – 2010

Jimmy Reid at Upper Clyde Shipyards (UCS)

Comedian Billy Connolly, a former shipyard welder, had much of the congregation in fits of laughter as he recounted several anecdotes about his earlier life in the area.

He recalled enjoying "many happy hours just hangin' aboot, smokin', drinkin', talkin' nonsense and listening to Jimmy waxing lyrical and being profound".

He said he would miss his friend "terribly" and recalled his innate sense of fairness and intellect.

"He put things simply, complex things, that just knocked me back three steps.

"I remember him saying that if you look at these housing estates and high-rise flats - look at all the windows.

"Behind every one of these windows is somebody who might be a horse-jumping champion, a formula one racing champion, a yachtsman of great degree, but he'll never know because he'll never step on a yacht or formula one car - he'll never get the chance."

In 1971 when the Heath Government announced the closure of the shipyards, workers occupied the yards. This action gained strong support around the Britain and many countries around the world. Cinema Action, the radical film collective, was invited by the UCS workers to film the occupation:

A joint shop stewards' committee successfully ran the occupation of Upper Clyde Shipyards for fourteen months until February 1972. It was an unprecedented response to the government's plan to liquidate the yards. Since the only other media contact by the shop stewards was press conferences, Cinema Action's footage inside the yards is unique. Class Struggle: Film from the Clyde (d. Cinema Action, 1977) tells the whole story of the dispute and the occupation. Cinema Action returned again to the Upper Clyde in 1983 for Rocking the Boat, shown on Channel 4, which caught up movingly with veterans of the 1971-2 action.

Beatle's Support:
It was the first time that Jimmy Reid had ever been sent flowers - a big wagon load of red roses.
Mystified, the shop stewards gathered round. The card said 'Lennon' 

"Lenin's deid!" cried one of them, but the roses, it turned out, were from Beatle John Lennon and there was a cheque. "For five or ten grand, I can't remember now" says Reid, 30 years on. "But it was a lot of money at the time."

Bangarra: Of Earth & Sky

Just wonderful!

"Marginal Democracy"

"Marginal Democracy" - Contemporary Artists Respond to Election 2010
19-22 August

"21 August 2010 sees the nation head into the poll booths for a federal election where the Australian people have a choice to make, albeit a marginal choice.

It's an age where Marginal Seats dictate outcome and Opinion Polls of these marginals dictate policy, where Labor and Liberal meld into each other, and nothing - for fear of lost votes - really ever seems to happen...

it's Marginal Democracy"

Opening Launch Thursday 19 August 6-9pm

At The Vanishing Point - Contemporary Art Gallery

565 King Street Newtown

(02)95192340 / 0430083364

www.atthevanishingpoint.com.au

Gallery Hours:

Thurs 10am-8pm

Fri 10am-6pm

Sat/Sun 10am-5pm

Tanaka film goes to Berlin

Germany: Globians Doc Fest Berlin August 12-18, 2010
Kino Toni, Antonplatz Weißensee

Trailers on YouTube

Tanaka-san will not do callisthenics
has been chosen as the Closing Film 18 August: 20.30

Peter Neilson: Melbourne exhibition

INTERLUDE: An exhibition of drawings by Peter Neilson

Australian Galleries

50 Smith Street

Collingwood, Victoria

Australia

Ph (0)3 9417 0800

From Tuesday September 2 to Saturday September 25, 2010.

Mon-Sat 10am to 6pm

Sun 10am-6pm

An exhibition of drawings by Peter Neilson will be held at Australian Galleries at its Smith Street gallery in Melbourne from Tuesday, September 2, 2010 for two weeks.

Under the name Interlude the drawings are a series of charcoal and chalk drawings of working tools: hammer, pliers, brushes, etc.

The exhibition's name gathers around it a number of ideas related to the activity and pause between each day's work and also the laying down of working tools after a lifetime's use before being picked up and used by another generation. Well kept working tools can last many times longer than the worker. It is also an exhibition in praise of hard work.

The exhibition opening will also be the occasion for the launch of Andrew Benjamin's book of essays Writing Art and Architecture. Benjamin is Professor of Critical Theory and Philosophical Aesthetics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.

Us and UN at Hiroshima

ABC: 06/07/2010

US attends Hiroshima ceremony for first time

Each year Japan invites the United States to attend a memorial ceremony marking the event and each year the US has declined to send a representative.

But in a first, the US sent a diplomatic representative to this year's ceremony that took place today.

It is also the first time a United Nations secretary-general has attended.

US ambassador John Roos was present at the ceremony and was joined by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

Mr Ban said the ceremony was highly emotional.

"I was so moved, so sad when I met some of the survivors," he said.

"We had to help them to realise their aspiration and dream to see during their limited lifetime, a world free of nuclear weapons."

Mr Ban has expressed his hope that nuclear weapons will never be used again.

"I have made nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation a top priority for the United Nations," he said.