You Can't Miss

For True/False, Kristin and I went to the Missouri Theatre on Friday and saw Waltz With Bashir, a beautifully animated Israeli documentary. Bashir was conceived by the film's writer and director, Ari Folman, in his journey to piece together his memories of the 1982 Lebanon War. Straight away, the audience is viciously greeted by a pack of 26 ruthless dogs that chase, taunt and trigger Folman's memory of what happened almost three decades before in Lebanon. The use of color throughout the film is sparse and the physical movement of the characters is slow. They serve as a metaphoric fog that drifts and envelopes characters who attempt to find out what happened. The film is enthralling. Since the illustrated memories of the film are mostly memories, you sometimes forget that you're watching a documentary. I found myself thinking, this dialogue seems so real--so genuine--and quickly remembered that it is all true. Bashir shows that illustrating the inscrutable can still be achieved and understood by not only the person in search of a memory, but also those watching.

Waltz With Bashir is showing next week at the RagTag. If you have any interest in animation, Israeli/Palestine relations go see this film. If you dont, go see this film anyway.

Here's the trailer:


And also an interview with the director, Ari Folman:



Over at Made by Many, everyone is obsessed with Twitter. I guess I just don't understand. The timing seems off. Twitter was happening two and a half years ago when I was an intern in Washington, D.C. Everyone at NPR was twittering. Suddenly, in the last few weeks, there has been a Twitter boom. I don't want to fault online social networks, because I participate in many of them, but why is Twitter such a big deal only now? I kind of thought it had been happening for a while--that the boomtime was over. Evidently not. I'll just blame my key sense of noticing trends and not following them.