The Beast Within Review

People have a strange relationship with animals. From the time we learned to tell ourselves apart from them we have held the idea that we live to control them. Our intelligence gives us the right to view them as lesser beings put here for our use. Yet at the same time we view them as our friends, as a companion through life that can bring comfort to us in our lonely journey through life. It's a strange contradiction in viewpoints that for many people seems perfectly logical and rational. You can argue the logic and rationality of looking at the world this way but in a lot of cases you can't argue with the results. One such result is the idea that we view them in human terms. We attach thoughts and emotions to them which they may or may not have depending on which animal you talk about and how much we know about them from a scientific perspective. This can lead to great compassion for animals, but it can also lead down some unfortunate paths. At the heart of The Beast Within, is an examination of some of those unfortunate paths. Trying to come to terms with the tragic circumstances it creates.

As much as we attach our own emotions and thoughts to animals, we also attach some basic principals of the animal world to ourselves. Chief among them is the survival of the fittest mentality. The idea that all animals fight for their survival and it's a natural process of nature to let the strong win and the weak die. When applied to other humans we often see disastrous results, but when applied to animals along with our own emotions and thoughts something even more tragic occurs. We get things like dog fights and cock fights and those who participate often see it as just as natural as anything else. Despite a drive and a focused effort by many to dispel these ideas through laws and other means it persists, people just figure out smarter ways to have them without getting in trouble with the law. So we continue to fight against it. Like many of our ancestors fought wooly mammoths and other predators to protect their families and the communities they were building, we fight against that dark part of ourselves which needs to be vanquished.

We fight against The Beast Within. If you've ever had a problem in your life, something or someone that you needed to fight against to prove yourself and your worth, this is the film to see. It's at times both a condemnation and a celebration of that struggle, and despite being at times a hard thing to watch if you've ever had a pet, but you will come away feeling better for having taken the journey. This isn't a film I would recommend for parents to show their young kids, but I definitely think it's one worth showing to a teenager or young adult who needs a good perspective on the issues they will face in their lives. It's definitely worth the watch.

It is available on iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, and Youtube. You can also stream or download it here:

Kiri Wai, Inner Skin Review

I have never really understood tattoos. I know people who have them. I know people who love them. I have even considered getting some myself and I am still considering it. But that doesn't mean I really understood what makes people get them. Over the years I had many opportunities to get one or more and I always stopped myself. Partly out of fear, and partly out of worry that I won't be able to change it or get it removed when I do. It's always been something that I wanted to do though. No matter how much I worried, I never lost the curiosity of getting something that would always be true of me tattooed on my body. So when I see someone who has done it, I am always amazed.

The cultural tradition hasn't been something I had considered though. I knew that it had tradition and there were many generations who believed in doing it but I never really looked at it. And then along comes the film Kiri Wai - Inner Skin. A film which gives you a history of tattoos, or at least one aspect of it, the Moko tradition. Moko is from the Eastern island tradition first discovered by James Cook who traveled to the region during Western exploration. With time, many Western people who settled there got Moko tattoos and it has been spreading ever since. The film takes a look at why the tradition has continued and what the significance of it is. Should people from the West get tattoos like that or should we have our own? How do people who do Moko feel about how interested we are in it?

In today's modern world with everything that we have, why do we look to these traditions? What is it that we like about other cultures? Is it simply that we have lost our own? These questions are at the heart of Kiri Wai - Inner Skin. I think anyone who has ever gotten a tattoo or is considering getting one should check it out. It will give you a deeper understanding of what kind of tattoo you should get and why. If you just find the idea really painful and don't want to get into it, you can still appreciate a look at the culture and the importance of it in our lives.


It is available on Google Play, I Love Docs.com, iTunes, Vudu, and Youtube.

You can also download or stream it here:

How can we turn the Occupy movement into a cash cow?

Previously I made a blog post about the Occupy movement and my feelings on the matter, which you can read here. Since then a lot has happened, most notably the breakup of the heart and soul of the movement which is the protests congregating in public parks. The people themselves are still out there and they are actively looking for a way to affect change. During that time though came Velcrow Ripper, a filmmaker with a vested interest in the various movements that pop up from time to time and how they have evolved. I had a chance to see the film Occupy Love, a film referred to as the third in a trilogy about the importance of love in the movements and what they represent.

Now it’s worth saying that I have not seen his previous films and so the context under which I say this is primarily through what he said during the Q&A and the film itself. But given what I saw, I am not surprised that I have never heard of him before. In my previous review of the film Lost Rivers I talked about the importance of conflict and contrast in a film whether narrative or documentary. You can find out whether or not Lost Rivers had it here. But when it comes to Occupy Love, we have a different problem regarding conflict. The conflict is in a sense right in front of you, the Occupy movement had a legitimate gripe against the businesses and governments that they believe are bringing down the people and their individual ability to prosper.

But conflict doesn’t mean anything if you have no interest in contrast. Occupy Love is essentially a love story to the Occupy movement. All of the people being interviewed and discussions happening are all done through the prism of “What we are doing is awesome and the people in power are scared” without actually bothering to check whether or not that is in fact the case. Having listened to a lot of people talk about the Occupy movement in the news and elsewhere from outside the movement itself, I don’t think you can reasonably say that the movement had any serious effect on the status quo. The “powers that be” were interested in what the movement wanted and what they were doing, but the movement itself had no specific demands for them to consider.

You can’t affect change with an abstract idea and without a functional hierarchical power structure to report to, which is part of what the movement was fighting against. By the same token, a film can’t be entirely one sided without something to contrast it with. At no point did a Wall Street insider get interviewed or a politician of some kind who could have presented another viewpoint for the audience to see. They made no attempt to look at it from a business perspective or any other perspective then the one it supported. That doesn’t make a movie and you ultimately will end up losing any audience that doesn’t already agree with the perspective being put forward.

Most problematic of all when it comes to this film, is the repetition of the question “How do we turn this movement into a movement about love?” It’s supposedly the central focus of the film but it’s one that is never really answered by the filmmaker and the people he asks the question to seem to all have the same answer. After two or three times, the question becomes rather annoying, much like the film itself about half way through, the other half of which is most likely torturous to a general audience. But it won the Best Canadian Feature Film award at the festival, so I have a better question to ask.

How do you turn the Occupy movement into a cash cow? You make a movie called Occupy Love.

Accordion Tribe Review

What do you think of when I say the word orchestra? I'm guessing that most people think of the instruments like the violin, the flute or the piano. Either that or the music of Beethoven, Bach and the endless array of beautiful classical tunes that are out there for everyone to enjoy. What do you think of when I say the word band? More than likely you think of your favourite band of the moment or all time. Groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones or modern bands like The Killers or Maroon 5. I would be willing to bet that most people when they hear either of these words never go directly to the word accordion. It's not generally thought of in either context. When you hear it generally you think of gypsies or a strange guy on the street doing a one man band with a monkey on his shoulder. You don't generally think of them in the sense of a group that tours around Europe playing in music halls and other venues to large audiences.

And yet there's The Accordion Tribe, an unusual group of musicians playing an unusual instrument. Each of these members, whether they are from Eastern Europe or New York or some place in between, have found a common truth in the accordion. They all love to play it and they all believe in the music they are playing. An instrument which is not quite classical but not quite modern. It occupies this weird in between place that no one really talks about but everyone knows exists. Bring five of them together and you have a group that's making beautiful music. You wouldn't think that there would be much range in an instrument which compared to a full orchestra or a computerized synthesizer doesn't seem to have what it takes. But listen to this group play together and you can't help but marvel at the melodies and compositions that come out of the group. From the style and the range of music they can play, their relationships with each other, much like their music, flows along and works in concert with each other to the point where you're never entirely bored.

The film, thankfully, is very much the same way. Each member of the group is given equal time and equal consideration to tell the story they want to tell about where and how they came to play the accordion and the group that is featured within it but you never get too much of either one to feel like it drags on in any serious way. Weaving back and forth between them you get a sense of what it is that drives them and how they make it work with each other. Music is a beautiful thing, and so is this film which at times plays like a song itself. Anyone who wants to see a fresh take on a new instrument, and a fresh look at a documentary about a music group should check this film out.

You can do that through Amazon, Vudu, Fandor, Youtube, and iTunes.

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