-
Ukraine’s Tarantino Goes to the Gulag
Few filmmakers achieve the meteoric success of Oleg Sentsov. After self-funding his first feature, Gamer, shot for $20,000, he received wide acclaim at the film’s premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2012. The story is a raw, realistic portrayal of the isolation and glory dreams of a young video game player stuck in…
-
Putin’s Fabricated Claim Of A Fascist Threat In Ukraine
In February, Ruslana, the pop star at the heart of Ukraine’s pro-democracy movement, stood on the stage in Kyiv’s Maidan—Independence Square—and witnessed snipers pick-off un-armed men in a sea of protesters. In a recent conversation, she described to me how the riot police beat people as though “intoxicated with hate.” President Obama’s sanctions are strong,…
-
70th Anniversary Of End Of World War II Marked By Fascism In Russia
Reggie Yates is clearly fearless. The black British reporter traveled to Russia for the BBC to understand the recent rise of fascism. In addition to discovering a mini Comic-Con glorifying Putin, he was also harassed for being black at a nationalist march founded by the president and was calmly informed in one interview that the…
-
One Year Later In Crimea: Polls Don’t Tell The Whole Story
Oleg Sentsov is the face of Crimea today. A year ago, the Ukrainian filmmaker put his next film on hold to participate in AutoMaidan, bringing food to Ukrainian soldiers under siege during Russia’s take-over of the peninsula. Soon after, he was kidnapped by FSB agents and brought to Moscow. Following a practice prevalent during Stalin’s…
-
How to Explain What’s Happening in Ukraine The conflict that we are seeing today stems from a deadly famine that Stalin engineered back in 1932.
In Ukraine, the nationalistic West is Ukrainian-speaking and welcomes the E.U., while the Russian-speaking East, where current President Victor Yanukovcyh rose to power, sees the Kremlin as an indispensable ally and wants to remain outside the E.U. This has given rise to massive demonstrations vowing to overthrow the government, police brutality, and the President’s urgent…
-
Earthquake Weather and How to Prepare For It
What seems dangerous often is not–black snakes, for example, or clear-air turbulence. While things that just lie there, like this beach, are loaded with jeopardy. A yellow dust rising from the ground, the heat that ripens melons overnight–this is earthquake weather. —Amy Hempel, from one of my all time favorite stories, In the Cemetery Where…
-
Fred Armisen: Ultimate Aphrodisiac
The Daily Beast brought some heat last month to Fred Armisen’s Obama, pointing out how critics say he needs to go, and here are a couple ideas for replacements, they’re called…STRANGERS! Armisen has finally secured my vote for playing Obama, and has he ever! My latest online addiction–my cyber yoga–has been watching and rewatching Fred…