An Incomplete Calendar

seherd

hoooo boy it’s about to get nerdy so glad I made it to the screening, shoutout Brixton community cinema. there has never been a more crazy time to be an energy reporter, and watching this while reporting on this very market is surreal. it dips a bit more into sentimentality than I thought it would but I’m not complaining. using music as a stepping stone to discuss the architecture of OPEC and the petrodollars funding the modern age in the gulf (which is essentially just the USA disguised) was a great idea. fav shot was possibly that of Noriyuki Haraguchi’s oil installation reflecting Alexander Calder’s fish mobil. it writes itself doesn’t it. the stamps. the found footage from petrol agencies. archival BP footage. very approachable and interesting. it’s also refreshing to see someone take oil seriously aside from the usual “greenhouse gases are bad” take - it’s a very “guns don’t kill people” take I know, but the reality is that oil isn’t going away. it’s so intertwined with defense spending, something that this movie touches on + considering we have countries that were neutral in WW2 now spending up to 5% of their GDP on it (Sweden) - idk man, I for sure don’t have an answer but I feel like we need to get a loooooot more serious about what the imperial machine is doing to us outside of just emissions. ANYWAY. this was great. I should watch more films related to work it’s a great brain exercise. Thank u Sanaz Sohrabi <3

chpnin4.5

grand coup de cœur du ciné du réel <3des contre-archives hyper riches sur les circulations culturelles et la construction des imaginaires politiquestrop admirative du travail sur l’espace dans la modernité industrielle, et la mise en scène des archives matérielles, vraiment inspirant !!

jonathan

A very arresting an specific documentary that still feels approachable and takes an interesting and understated visual approach. I love the use of the actual physical objects of the images and envelopes and stamps rather than just having them occupy the whole screen. It uses the idea of this moment of unity for OPEC (the songs for OPEC) and kind of weaves a history there through pamphlets and postage and magazines and archival photos. Some really interesting ideas about the physical movement of images and the way we look at things temporally.