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Tag: Film

In ‘Ovarian Psycos,’ Women Use Bikes To Claim Space & The Streets (#SXSW)

Posted in Creative Commons, Journalism, and SXSW

There’s a particular liberation found on two wheels, gliding through a night time city street.

That feeling becomes simultaneously even more liberating and powerful in a group of cyclists, reasserting our right to take up space normally dominated by cars.

But cycling culture is notoriously sexist — just ask almost any woman who has tried to purchase a bike or get repairs at a shop, and group rides are often male-dominated and unwelcoming to women and the gender-nonconforming.

The Ovarian Psycos are a women-of-color cycling crew from East Los Angeles and the Boyle Heights neighborhood. Beyond simply spreading the joy of the ride to more people, their work is directly situated in a historic tradition of feminist and Xicana activism.

“Ovarian Psycos,” a documentary from directors Joanna Sokolowski and Kate Trumbull-LaValle that premiered this year at SXSW, brings the crew’s politics and passion to the screen, where it can hopefully inspire other women like them to take up more space on the streets and in their everyday lives.

‘Trapped’ Reveals The Human Cost Of Anti-Abortion Laws

Posted in Journalism, SXSW, and The Establishment

A 13-year-old rape victim makes the long journey from McAllen, in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, to the closest open health clinic that provides abortions. At the time, it’s the Whole Women’s Health Clinic, 200 miles away in San Antonio. At 20 weeks and five days pregnant, she arrives just as the deadline for their services approaches.

Despite the willingness of the clinic workers to help, and the availability of an increasingly rare abortion doctor, the clinic is unable to obtain a nurse anesthetist. Nothing can be done, short of another expensive journey of hundreds of miles into New Mexico. The impoverished victim will never be able to make that journey in time.

“We sentenced her to motherhood,” declares a tearful Marva Sadler, director of clinical services at the clinic, in one of the most affecting scenes of the film Trapped.

SXSW Recap Wrap-Up (But LOTS More Writing To Come)

Posted in Journalism, and SXSW

I survived SXSW 2016 … but barely?

Unfortunately, I spent the last two days of the event recovering from a short-lived stomach bug that’s been virulently spreading through Austin over the last couple weeks, and apparently even got to at least one band, according to a music journalist friend of mine.

Now that I’m through the worst of both South by South West and my own immune system, it’s time to catch up on writing.

Here’s a recap of my recent features on SXSW:

Night Of The Slasher Makes Meta-Horror Personal (#SXSW Film Review)

Posted in Journalism, and SXSW

A supernatural serial killer stalks a teenage girl after she smokes pot, drinks beer, dances half-naked and has casual sex.

It’s an image that’s moved beyond cliché and into the realm of “meta-horror,” when the genre comments on its own obsessions with slut-shaming and male power fantasies. Meta-horror may have reached its ultimate expression in Joss Whedon’s “Cabin In The Woods” (2012), which reimagines the tropes of horror films as a dark, Lovecraftian ritual that also implicates the viewer, wagging a finger at us for enjoying the gore and the terror quite so much.

Shant Hamassian’s 2015 short film “Night Of The Slasher” (2015) is also meta-horror, but it takes place on a more personal, even intimate scale. Jenelle (Lily Berlina, expressing a great deal with almost no words) works through a literal checklist of horror tropes to deliberately attract the killer. The scar on her neck tells us she’s encountered him before, and we soon realize she’s out for vengeance.

SXSW Day 1: Abortion, Prison Technology & More

Posted in Journalism, and SXSW

I’ve made it down to the Austin Convention Center for the first time at this year’s South By SouthWest, and I’m excited to kick off my coverage.

Today I am taking it slow — spent the morning wrapping up some work for MintPress News’ TV show, Behind The Headline, and allowed myself some extra time to ride my bike downtown because of the traffic apocalypse caused by SXSW’s first day and Barack Obama’s visit. It still only took me about 15 minutes, and I’m feeling pretty out of shape from the winter too!

In case you’re wondering, I’m not attending Obama’s keynote address because this is the kind of topic that will be amply covered by other journalists and in other outlets. If you want a sneak preview, check out the hashtag #POTUS. And yes, apparently Obama stopped at Torchy’s Tacos on the way here!

A new direction for my journalism

Posted in Archive, Journalism, MintPress News, and SXSW

SXSW is known for the amazing diversity of talent it features, but also gets a bad rap for being corporate dominated and inaccessible to many people. It deserves a lot of that criticism, honestly. But, since I have access to essentially every part of it, I should take advantage of that and share it with all of you.

I want to give you my unique gonzo perspective on the event, and report on some of the weirdest, most interesting, or just unfairly overlooked panels, artists, and films. SXSW takes place this year from March 11-19. Here’s a small sample of what I’m looking forward to covering: