Born Free: A Powerful Stand Against Genocide

Show me a country where the bombs had to fall
Show me the ruins of buildings so tall
And I’ll show you a young land
With many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or I
You or I

-Phil Ochs

Born Free is a new music video by M.I.A., which is foremost a starkly compelling short film directed by Romain Gavras.  Gravas is a co-founder of Kourtrajmé, an art and filmmaking collective in Paris known for provocative explorations of contemporary social issues.  Born Free is the harrowing tale of a company of shock troops in an unnamed American city that is rounding up “ginger” headed children and adolescents, and transporting them to a desolate brushland for execution.

The film provides a startling metaphor for  the very real pictures we see in ongoing news coverage of murderous violence occurring in places where we don’t actually live.  But in our current political atmosphere, with the increasing influence of right-wing groups advocating ever-more draconian social policies, those images are  rapidly coming home to America.

Born Free: A Powerful Stand Against Genocide

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The Hand of the Masters: A Steampunk Version of The French Revolution

La Main des Maîtres (The Hand of the Masters) is a five-minute animated short film by three students from the French Georges Méliès School: Vivien Chauvet, Adrien Toupet and Clément Delatre.  The film won the 2009 Strasbourg International Film Festival (France) Best Animation Award.  It takes graphic inspiration from early 20th century’s Art Nouveau and Victorian styles, and from those influences, everything went to Steampunk.  The film tells the story of working class people and their struggles during the industrial revolution.  In this Steampunk version of the French Revolution, Chari and Ico, two young members of the working class, try to give meaning to their existences.

The Hand of the Masters: A Steampunk Version of The French Revolution

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