Month: April 2019

Happy finals season! This week’s random movie is DVD 9895, Silent Naruse, is a collection of two early works of Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse. The two films, Flunky, Work Hard and No Blood Relations are Naruse’s first two films. Both are silent films. Here’s our summary:

Flunky, Work Hard (1931, 28 min): An atypical breezy comedy about a poor insurance salesman trying to provide for his family. No Blood Relation (1932, 79 min.): A maternal-instinct melodrama about an actress desperate to reclaim the daughter she left behind.

I wasn’t able to find clips for these on the internet, but if you’re interested in exploring early Japanese cinema, you should definitely check this DVD out.

Good morning, and happy Monday! The AU campus has begun its own countdown to finals, so it’s probably appropriate that this week’s random movie– DVD 8043 — is a countdown to nuclear armageddon. Here’s our summary:

Tracing the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the present state of global affairs: nine nations possessing nuclear weapons capabilities with others racing to join them, with the world held in a delicate balance that could be shattered by an act of terrorism, failed diplomacy, or a simple accident. The film makes a compelling case for worldwide nuclear disarmament, an issue more topical than ever as over 40 nations have the technical capacity to construct nuclear weapons.

Now if only someone could make a compelling case against finals…

With everything in bloom all over campus, today’s random movie focuses on the nastier side of modern agriculture. DVD 10641, Toxic Tears, focuses on the effects of monoculture in India. Here’s our summary:

“The Green Revolution of the mid 20th Century was aimed at greatly reducing starvation in the Third World. But the high-yielding seeds and mono-crops central to its success required heavy use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and water, with a higher cost than the traditional, more natural methods that were abandoned. While the Green Revolution did increase yields of grains and initially benefited farmers, the price paid proved very high in India, leading to heavy indebtedness, disharmony, environmental degradation, and thousands of suicides among farmers. Toxic Tears features farmers, local merchants, and moneylenders in the Southern Punjab region who tell their stories. Two older farmers in one village describe how farming in the past was different from today, and how their sons were forced to take more loans from banks and local moneylenders. Heavily in debt, they took their lives by drinking pesticides, and were among the 25 farmers who committed suicide in recent years in their village. One villager who continued to farm organically describes how the use of pesticides is like a drug addiction, making both farmers and the land dependent upon them, and at great cost. Dr. Vandana Shiva, noted scientist, environmentalist and winner of the Right Livelihood Award, provides additional background and commentary. She believes local moneylenders have indeed benefited, but that the main beneficiaries are the big agricultural companies who provide the seeds, pesticides and fertilizers to local middlemen, with little understanding of the impact of their decisions and products.”

This is what Random Movie Monday is all about — digging up some obscure dvd we have in the collection. This week it’s DVD 13010, The Scientific Method. It’s a straight-up, no tricks educational video about… the scientific method. Originally released in 1996, it’s so obscure I can’t even find a trailer for it.

If you ever need the scientific method explained, Media Services has you covered!