Market Street Cinema

Operation: Fancy Pants!: Art matters.

I went to San Francisco (the first time I've ever been in California) and was blown away at all of the talent on display. I couldn't go anywhere without running into a street musician, someone playing guitar in a coffee shop, a mural. I've never experienced that level of self-expression before. San Francisco doesn't just permit it, it actively encourages it. That doesn't exist on any level in Little Rock. And that's what saddens me. Moving to creative hubs such as San Francisco or New York City isn't practical for everyone. Also in SF: One of their art museums had a Picasso exhibit. There were enough of his paintings on display to fill an entire average-sized museum. It is truly something to be able to span decades of an artists life, to be able to see the majority of their endeavors in person. And as an artist, to be able to look back on your life and see a massive entire catalog of accomplishments. Artists 'create'. Once you've written that story on paper (or text file), or recorded that song, or painted that painting, you have something tangible. Whether you can see or hear it, it's there, and it's real, and it's yours. What greater purpose is there in the world than to create something? Something good and worthwhile that people appreciate, for that matter? And I think there's an even greater concern beyond location. I worry that many of the people that want to pursue some artistic endeavor or another can't because....it doesn't pay the bills. Most people who sing, dance, film, write, photograph, play, rap, paint, do stand-up, etc do it in whatever spare time they have (away from work, school, spouses, kids, and other obligations) and with little to no compensation. And as the bills and the responsibilities pile up, how many talented people have had to give up on 'doing what they love' in order to simply make it through life? How many people had to make the painful choice between one or the other? I wonder about all the singer/songwriters that never get noticed, the writers that never get published because they don't have an already established name, the independent filmmakers that have to give up because they've run out of money, the photographers who got burned out on endless wedding/baby photo shoots, the bands that broke up under increasing hours at their jobs, the actors who can't get anything better than walk-on roles, and so on.... As a society, we give lip service to the idea of 'following your dreams'. But how many people get to pursue them?

A critical cinema, interviews with independent filmmakers

Northern Ireland Yearbook

Out at work, building a gay-labor alliance

The politics of sexuality

Hong Kong cinema, a cross-cultural view