Tag Archives: opinion

Hollywood needs a Push

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Posted by Leefe on 7 October 2009 – 11:35 pm
Filed under Movies, Social
Tagged as , ,

I occasionally peruse the Apple movie trailers or HD Trailers sites to see what movies I can look forward to seeing.

PushAt the beginning of the year I remember seeing a trailer for Push. Looked interesting. Start with psychics, mix in some secret government agency, and an Asian city to give it a exotic look. Then add a touch of fate of the world to top it off.

But it never turned up in the cinemas.

Maybe Division sent a Wiper out and I don’t remember seeing it? Because, if you look at Amazon, you can see the DVD of Push on sale (as of July).

No, I noticed a advertisement for it on the back of a bus the other day. It appears that Push has only recently been released in Australia (10 September).

Why do we have to wait an extra 6 months for movies to be released here? Sure, some of the big name movies are released everywhere at the some time (eg Matrix, Lord of the Rings). But most movies seem to get stuck in a time dilation effect. Aging at a different rate in Australia than elsewhere in the world.

This slow release schedule, in a fast inter connected world, I can see having 2 main effects.

The marketing effort spent on the movie is wasted. That the online reviews pushing the movie will have gone. Will the public see a movie panned 6 months ago?

People will see it before it makes it to the cinema. Via legal means, buying DVDs online from other parts of the world. Or via piracy, downloading movies shared on the internet.

The film industry seems to be stuck in the old world. And needs to learn to use the new one (without suing everyone).

Other links of interest:

Accepting the new black America

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Posted by Leefe on 6 November 2008 – 11:51 pm
Filed under News
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Yesterday I turned on the TV in my phone just in time to watch Obama’s acceptance speech (serendipity perhaps). He scored 336 to 158 (or something like that). It reminded me of an opinion piece I read earlier that day in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The article by Peter Hartcher, The nation that stops a race … until now, seems to say that you can only be a powerful black American if you are only a recent black American. Others have some sort of inferiority complex.

It uses Colin Powell, a first generation American with Jamaican parents, and Barack Obama, another first generation with a Kenyan father, as examples of how African Americans can succeed (and become powerful). But that it only works for newcomers to the African American fraternity. That they both don’t have to live with the ancestral memory of slavery, the self doubt and feeling of low self worth that is holding back the other blacks in America.

His argument seems to ignore other African Americans that have succeeded.

There are prominent black American members of the entertainment industry. Will Smith and Halle Berry are good examples. Not to mention the success of Oprah Winfrey, in business, not just entertainment.

I’m sure there are many black American sport stars, though I’m not a follower of American sports, so can name only a few. Are Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, not important/successful African Americans?

And I can’t comment on black American business leaders, it’s not my area of expertise. But I’m sure some exist.

An important omission from his list of powerful African Americans is the current Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.

While I can see his point about memory of slavery, I think it is an over simplification. And I disagree with the premis that only outsiders have a chance. As can be seen from the above examples, not all long term African Americans are limited by their heritage.