DrAlice Howland: Good morning. It's an honor to be here. The poet Elizabeth Bishoponce wrote: 'the Art of Losing isn't hard to master: so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.' I'm not a poet, I am a person living with Early Onset Alzheimer's, and as that person I find myself learning the art of losing every day. Losing my bearings, losing objects, losing sleep, but mostly losing memories...
Dr. Alice Howland: All my life I've accumulated memories - they've become, in a way, my most precious possessions. The night I met my husband, the first time I held my textbook in my hands. Having children, making friends, traveling the world. Everything I accumulated in life, everything I've worked so hard for - now all that is being ripped away. As you can imagine, or as you know, this is hell. But it gets worse. Who can take us seriously when we are so far from who we once were? Our strange behavior and fumbled sentences change other's perception of us and our perception of ourselves. We become ridiculous, incapable, comic. But this is not who we are, this is our disease. And like any disease it has a cause, it has a progression, and it could have a cure. My greatest wish is that my children, our children - the next generation - do not have to face what I am facing. But for the time being, I'm still alive. I know I'm alive. I have people I love dearly. I have things I want to do with my life. I rail against myself for not being able to remember things - but I still have moments in the day of pure happiness and joy. And please do not think that I am suffering. I am not suffering. I am struggling. Struggling to be part of things, to stay connected to whom I was once. So, 'live in the moment' I tell myself. It's really all I can do, live in the moment. And not beat myself up too much... and not beat myself up too much for mastering the art of losing. One thing I will try to hold onto though is the memory of speaking here today. It will go, I know it will. It may be gone by tomorrow. But it means so much to be talking here, today, like my old ambitious self who was so fascinated by communication. Thank you for this opportunity. It means the world to me. Thank you.
When I walked out of the AMC Century City after The Zone of Interest ended, I was quiet for a while. My mind was wrestling with the fact that I wasn't sure I would be able to say that I enjoyed the movie because the experience was so horrifying. But I understood deeply that this is an important film.
'The Zone of Interest' and Sound The Zone of Interest is a historical drama written and directed by Jonathan Glazer. This cinematic work draws inspiration from Martin Amis's 2014 novel, which shares the same title.
The film is a collaborative effort among the United States, the United Kingdom, and Poland. It delves into the lives of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hss and his spouse, portraying their attempts to forge an ideal existence adjacent to the concentration camp. Christian Friedel and Sandra Hller are featured in the principal roles.
In the film, when the wife's mother visits, she acts almost as a conduit for us. Her arrival and hearing of the sounds of violence shake us out of any stasis we've found hearing the death and destruction without seeing it. Mostly because she's reminding us it's there and it's not normal.
At the heart of this film, you get a study on the banality of violence and how apathetic we can become to it. Even toward the end, when we flash to the future, the audience gets an almost accusatory moment where we are forced to examine the way we let this atrocity wash over us and question how we remember and how we act.
Here's where I'm at right now in the journey because it changes, right? I mean, I'm an old man now and I've been doing this thing for a minute and it keeps evolving. Evolving, and I keep learning and I keep growing. I hope I do until I'm bones. But I think that at the moment, the thing that intrigues and fascinates me the most is probably the boring answer. Maybe it's not boring, but it's the very heady answer of I have so many perplexing questions about this life at this moment. I thought at 49 I would've really figured stuff out. I really thought I would understand why I get so depressed, why I get so anxious over little weird things. Why is it so hard sometimes to wake up in the morning? Why am I so afraid of the things that I'm afraid of? And I think that through the lens of this genre, which is unfortunately, it's not that it can't be fun, right?
Fun can happen and you could still wrestle with and explore those questions. Right now, I'm just at this place where I'm staring at the universe around me being like, God, this doesn't get easier. And then when you go through a story where you have an incredible new iconic monster or entity or event, whatever it may be, nature horror, serial killer horror, supernatural Horror, slasher gore fest. To me, that's the thing that when someone sends me a project or we're starting to develop an idea with the company that I am running right now or I'm trying to create something, that's the thing that hooks me, gets me, gets me going. It gets me really revved up about the thought of jumping in on something and giving that energy to it.
Angel Melanson: The cycle has come back around and it's time for the stuff that I really, really champion and enjoy. And also to piggyback on that, I love to see just diverse characters like queer characters, and characters of color, and it has nothing to do with the story. They just happen to be there because they just exist in normal spaces. And I would like to see a little more of that. I feel like we're slowly getting there, but we need more of that.
Peter Kuplowsky: I feel like when Jordan Peel's Get Out came, it was great, but I also think that Hollywood learned the wrong lesson, which was like, oh, we all have to make these Get Out-style movies that have to be movies about that are very much with that discourse at the top of mind.
Akela Cooper: Yeah, it was like every time I would go out to pitch something that just happened to have a black lead being in a horror movie, the execs would politely listen to my pitch and they would go, but what is this saying? And I would be like, if this situation fucking sucks and is terrifying, they're like, no, no, on a deeper level, what is it saying? And they would be like them staring at me, me staring at them, and I'm like, I'm going to make you white executives say it. But yeah, it was always like, what is it saying about the black community is like, this fucking situation is terrifying. But yeah, no, it was push that any horror film that I had to do had to say something. And I hope that what clout I have from Malignant and Megan will help me in the future get those movies off the ground now.
David Dastmalchian: Right. I guess I'm yearning to see it. I love fantasy horror. I love good science fiction horror, but I'm a lifelong comic collector and I've collected horror comics for most of my life. But I do love the intersection between superhero mythologies and horror. And I'd like to see that explored more. It has been done and there are people doing it. I think that's really exciting. And I just think there's something about the way we're intersecting with technology, which you've done in a really cool way, but what I'm yearning for right now is the way we experience it. I feel like we're all on the brink of something. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's VR, I want a new experience for my horror and I think about this a lot. What does that look and feel like? Do we get William Castle on their asses? Is it just bringing in some kind of live element to the theatrical experience? Is that possible? Is there a way legally and financially to pull that off?
This annual contest is for all students at up to 12th grade from anywhere in the world. Individuals, small teams of two to five, and large teams of six to twelve are judged separately. Read More>>
The National Space Society presents the case for space solar power, the future of clean, safe, limitless energy for everyone. Space solar power will harness the power of the sun in orbit and beam energy where it is most needed on Earth, eventually replacing fossil fuels and allowing our planet to once again become the pristine home we deserve. For more information and to donate, click here.
Enter the plight of a suddenly-dead space station, and one intrepid, slightly physically violent flight director named Valery. Valery just happens to run into Vladimir at a gas station, and somehow after one awkward exchange and a lot of other failed potential mission commanders screwing up in the Soyuz simulator, our hero Vlad is named as the mission commander to save Salyut 7. This comes after a meeting on Earth where Cold War-era concerns about the U.S. sabotaging the space station are discussed, including possible interference by the space shuttle Challenger and an evil, sneaky AF French astronaut who happens to have a lot of knowledge about Salyut 7 (based very loosely on Jean-Loup Chrtien, who flew aboard Salyut 7 in real life).
So is Salyut 7 accurate? Well, there are parts that are accurate, and parts that veer very far from what actually happened. But you should still see this movie, even if some parts are slightly messy.
Yeah, those. When it comes to sad romance movies that make you cry, honestly, we can't get enough. In the back of our minds, we totally know that most of the characters are made up (or, at the very least, are fictionalized adaptations of real people). But the emotions and heartbreaks, the wins and losses of being in love, still feel totally real. And isn't that what matters? We thought so.
If Nick Robinson as Simon doesn't have you smiling at all of his prospective romances while he searches for the elusive "Blue" throughout the film, then you are probably a monster. But the moment that will have you sobbing (and exhaling along) is when Simon's mom (played by Jennifer Garner) sits down and confronts Simon about him being gay.
Where to watch: Amazon and Disney+
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